One hundred years ago
THE GREAT jewel robberies have begun. 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 00,000, wide open. The family were all downstairs at dinner, and it is thought that the bur- glars, 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 jew- ellery of their carelessness. They would be frightened to death at the idea of leaving 00,000 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 prop- erty 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.
The Spectator 24 December 1892
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