London has been amused, and a little frightened, by a
very strange narrative. The Rev. R. B. Kennard, Rector of Marn- hull, Dorset, a well-known man, of considerable means, sixty- seven years of age, declares that on September 14th he was to be married in the parish church of Woodford, Essex. On the previous day he was at the Castle Hotel, when he was asked to call on Mr. Fraser, a connection of his own, on a matter of importance. He entered a carriage sent for him, and found himself in the hands of two men, who seized him by the throat, and drove him under duress through London, past the Angel at Islington, to a house in Hunter Street, St. Pancras. He was there dragged into a house and shown into a small bed-room, where he was detained, still without explanation, till twelve next day, when he succeeded in bribing his captors, and made his way to Woodford with his story. Fortunately, his bride and his friends believed him, and he was married next morning. The story seems true, and the popular explanation is that some one interested in preventing the marriage intended to consign the rector to a madhouse. The necessary doctors, however, could not be found, and the agents in the plot, not receiving the cer- tificates, grew frightened, and accepted money down. The un- lucky clergyman was able in his journey to appeal repeatedly to the bystanders, and once to a policeman, but no one inter- fered. Brigandage, clearly, is possible in England.
Previous page
