A Miscarriage of Justice
| Published date | 01 April 1935 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X3500800211 |
| Date | 01 April 1935 |
| Author | John Vibart |
| Subject Matter | Article |
A
Miscarriage
of
Justice
THE
EDLINGHAM
BURGLARY
By
JOHN
VIBART
ATabout 2o'clock in the morning of 7th February,
1879, two men broke into the Rectory of Edlingham,
a little village not far from Alnwick, in Northumberland.
The
Rectory, at the time, was occupied by the Revd. J.
Buckle, aged 77, his bed-ridden wife, a daughter, and three
maidservants.
The
night was exceptionally dark,
but
a light
covering of snow lay on the ground and this proved of no
little importance when the search for evidence began.
Roused from his slumbers by an unusual sound apparently
emanating from the drawing-room, which was directly beneath
his own bedroom, Mr. Buckle, with more courage than dis-
cretion considering his advanced years, left his bed, lit a
candle and, arming himself with a rusty old sabre, descended
the stairs with the object of discovering the cause of the
disturbance. At the top of the staircase he was joined by his
daughter who had also been awakened by the strange sound.
Softly opening the drawing-room door they came upon
two men, with narrow bands of black crepe across the eyes,
who were emptying the silver contents of a cabinet into a
sack. Mr. Buckle immediately advanced into the room
flourishing his sabre in an attempt to strike the nearest burglar
across the arms and legs, while Miss Buckle pluckily diverted
the attention of the second intruder towards herself, at the
same time crying loudly for
help-which
cries, it appears,
remained unanswered.
219
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