AGED WOMAN’S TRAMP

Evening Star, Issue 19024, 20 August 1925, Page 8

AGED WOMAN’S TRAMP

EIGHTY MILES TO COURT A SHILLING AND NO FOOD Starting from home with only a shilling in her pocket and with a dog as her sole companion, a. woman ot Ob years of age walked cighty-two miles "from a Hampshire village to London during a recent week-end to defend a case in the law courts. She was Mrs Catherine Foyle, of Honnsdown, near Southampton, and she appeared in person to resist an application by tho_ At-torney-General that she bo restrained from setting up a stall, lighting, a fire, or otherwise trespassing on His Majesty’s hind in the New Forest. She lost her case, but was able to return by train, her faro being paid by the Forestry Commissioners. Dusty and dirty, dressed in an old blue mackintosh and battered black felt hat, Mrs Foyle reached her home with swollen feet and torn boots. In an interview she said: ‘‘l did it all lor my husband’s sake, and now there is nothing left. We are penniless, and 1 do not know what wo shall do. On Saturday, at 10 p.ru., . with my dog Rover and a shilling in my pocket, witli no food, wo set out. “ The weather was good, and I had thought everything out carefully. I took all my papers with, me about the case, although I can neither read nor write, and 1 took my dog license and also papers showing my husband’s and my own war work and proof that I am a ratepayer. After much hardship wo reached London safely on Monday night. Rover and 1 walked every night and all day, and ho has been a faithful protector to mo and lias never left me a moment, lie even wont into the law courts with me. 1 walked for two days with my shoe off. “Wo went, from Southampton to Winchester, and on Sunday morning I had a pot of tea and two slices of bread and butter at a cottage outside the town. At Aldershot, further on, a policeman gave mo a glass of water and let me rest a few hours, and on Saturday night wo got to Basingstoke, where 1 went to the police station, but was unable to get help. I CRIED ON THE WAY. “I took to the road and cried on the way. and at last the dog and I got to Isle worth at 8 p.m., where I threw myself on the mercy of the workhouse master and told him the object of my journey. Ho was very kind. At first there was a difficulty about Rover's admission, but they consented to feed him and give him a bed, as I said I would not bo parted from him, and that if they refused to let him remain with me I would lie on the road. So they lot him stay, and next morning at 8 o’clock we left the workhouse, as I wanted to got to the law courts as soon as possible. “ We trudged along as far as Hammersmith Bridge, and I felt I could go no further. People stared at me and thought I was a tramp, and I felt finished and filthy dirty. Rover, too, began to get tired. A young man took pity on us and got us on a bus. And so we arrived at the law courts. There, I collapsed. Everyone was very kind, and when I got better Mr Justice Russell himself spoke to mo and said I was a very brave woman. They gave me a paper to bring back to say that I have got to tell all people who try to sell anything in the forest that they must not take a penny piece for anything.

“When I was taken (o Waterloo today I was treated like a. Indy. I was given food and anything that I wanted. But I do not know'what wc shall do MOW.” A LETTER THAT MISCARRIED.

When the case came on in Mr Justice Russell’s Court Mir Dighton Pollock, who represented the AttornoyGeneral, said that stalls, were becoming a perfect nuisance in the forest, and it was an absolute necessity to prevent them. The Commissioners did not want to bo bard. 'What they wanted was a clear order which they could show to everybody. The Judge: What appals,mo is this poor woman coining all the way from Southampton. Mrs Foyle: I wrote to yon, my lord, to tell you that I was starting on Saturday with a little dog and with nothing in my pocket, and that I would be in the court on Tuesday morning.

The Judge: I never got that letter. Mr Pollock read evidence, in support of tlio motion, from which it appeared that Mrs Foyle had a shop in Toll on. Mrs Foyle: Wo have had to shut it up, because we cannot afford to pay the rent. My husband is unable to work.

The Judge: You have no right lo have a stall in the New Forest. Mrs Foyle : I won’t go again. “ I CAN’T WALK ANY MORE.”

The Judge: We will have an order of the court stopping yon from going there. But the plaintiff's arc not asking you to pay any costs. Mrs Foyle: How am 1 going to get home? I can’t walk any more. Mr Pollock: We will pay her fare hack.

Mrs Foyle; I have a little dog. Mr Justice Russell: It would have been a dreary walk from Southampton without a dog. It would be a gracious act on the part of the Forestry Commissioners to give her the train taro back for herself and the dog. Mr Pollock: If she will conic outside I will see that that is made all right,. Mrs Foyle accordingly .went outside the. court, so that she might have explained to her the legal result'of what had happened and bo given the fare back to Southampton.