SCOTTISH MYSTERY

Grey River Argus, 22 April 1929, Page 5

SCOTTISH MYSTERY

BABY’S BODY IN COFFIN ( A Relic in Hermit’s Hut (Australian & N.Z. Cable Aasuj. (Received April 21 at 5.5 p.in.) . LONDON, Ap?il 20. In a( lonely one-roomed hut, perched atop of the rugged Kincardine Cliiils, the Reverend Alexander Thom us Bell dyed a week ago. The podite yesterday, when tu.ning over an odd collection of rubbish that was pileo on the floor, were amazed to hud concealed an o.nate coffin, con staining an inner sealed shell, in whic’i there was the almst perfectly mummufed body of a baby boy, who apparently died soon alter birth. The coffin must have lain there for years. There wais nothing on the nameplate to suggest the identity. It contained oply the inscrpltion: “There’s a home for little children.” The Rev. Alexander Bell was formerly in the Scottish Episcopal Church, but he turned a Roman Catholic a.t the end of the War. Ho bad preached before King Edward and also before King George at All Saints Church, West of London. Deceased had lived a hermit’s life in hie hut for a quarter of a century. The police despair of fathoming the mystery. The body of the infant was dressed jn a hand-embroidered frock. The inference is that gruesome relic shared Rev. { Alexander Bell’s twenty years of lonely existence, and is believed to ha.ve been in some way bound up in the life of the hermit.