The great jewel robberies have begun again. On Sunday night
Leigh Court, near Bristol, the residence of Lady Miles, was entered by adroit burglars, who found a safe, in which jewels were stored to the value of 230,000, wide open. The family were all downstairs at dinner, and it is thought that the burglars, knowing that, boldly entered the house, ascended to the bedrooms, and safely departed with their plunder. It seems pretty clear, if the story is true, that they must have had a confederate within the house, or they could never have acted with such decision or have expected to find the safe left open. A well-made safe should take hours to cut open, and should shut itself. Nothing, however, can cure the owners of jewellery of their carelessness. They would be frightened to death at the idea of leaving 230,000 in coin or notes in an open drawer, but they will leave that sum in diamonds on a dressing- table, or in a safe to which there are two sets of keys. We will not say Lady Miles deserved to lose her jewels, for it is essential to civilisation that loose property in a house should be safe; but we will say that, in leaving her strong-box open, she most unfairly increased the responsibilities both of her servants and the police.
Previous page
