RICH BUT STARVING.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XIX, Issue 2061, 30 December 1924, Page 3

RICH BUT STARVING.

STRANGE WOMAN'S HOARD. A MYSTERIONS AFFAIR Gravesend, Nov. 6. Hundreds of pounds in Bank of England notes, Bradburys, gold and silver, have been found in the house of a starving, paralysed woman named Miss Clarke, living in Parrock Street, of this town. She is now in a semi-conscious condition in the infirmary. The discovery of the treasure reads more like fiction than tr)nth—in fact, it was because he acted upon the novels ho had read that. Police Constable Stedmau made 'tiie discovery. OFFICER'S DAUGHTER. The woman is a mystery, but from documents found by the police, who are anxious to trace her relatives, it appears thaiti Miss Clarke is 70 years of age. Her full name is Miss Agnes Ramsay Clarke. She is the daughter of the late Alexander Clarke, a British officer, who married a Miss Leishman, a German woman. The family, in the middle of last century, lived at 10, Sluuttgart, Wjnrtemburg, but they travelled all over the wordd. Miss Clarke appears to be the last of her family. She was baptised at Penang in 1854. She was found by a neighbour, Mrs Raspusson, lying ill in the garden a few days ago), and removed itlo her bed. Dv Hancack was sent for, and he got the police to fetch her in an ambulance to the infirmary. NEGLECTED HOUSE. When the police got to the elevenroomed, four-store3 T ed house, they were amazed ait the condition in which it was found. Neglect everywhere showed itself, and its appearance confirmed a statement made bhaxt Miss Clarko hail not been visited by anyone for 28 years. When the police went back to make the house secure mhey were met by howls from two old emaciated black cats. There was no food in the house except a hag of bananas and apples. In one of the rooms the police saw a mahogany wardrobe open. Hanging from liookK inside were bundles of first issue Bradbury's, lied up by string, ; bootlaces, and dirty torn handkerchiefs. The search began just after midnight and lasted seven hours. \ t otes with: rubbish. With ithe aid off torchlights the police" peeped into all the crannies and lumber of this astonishing house, with the result that, thousands of pounds in gold and silver and notes were removed in the early hours of the morning in a motor car. The wardrobe yielded hundreds of nones, hundlets of them being stowed away amongst rubbish in the bottom. The police next went to the kitchen, and in a. meat tin found two linen bags filled with sovereigns, and a number of half-crowns and llorins. Bundles of thirty and forty one-pound notes were stuffed away amongst the old linen. In Miss Clarke's bed—a. strange mahogany box-bed of the early Victorian era—they found between the mattresses a great pile of Bank of England notes. Search was made of mho big boxes and trunks scattered over the bare boards in the different rooms, and there *umb|led out a, profusion of old silks and lace, and millinery of eighty years ago—crinolines and bustles and other garments of fine guahuy, which had apparently not been touched for half a century. A LARGE FORTUNE. Thousands oil: letters were found, showing that Miss Clarke had handled, a large fortune, and thatf she owned houses, stock, and securities in Gravesend and London.

But not one single letter was fcfcmd dated later than 1904. All this voluminous correspondence was labelled, and put into small packets for each year. It is obvious that the old lady was charitable and kind to many religious bodies and private persons, for letters of 'thanks for gifts years ago were found. Miss Clarke evidently lived in the kitchen and one bedroom with her cats.

She had several locks on her front door, and every window of this big house has been barred for years. Yet, except to her neighbour, she has maintained an astonishing hermitage in the een.ire of a busy town for most of her life. Beautifta odd oak tables, mahogany and walnut bureaux and beds were mixed up indescribably with portfolios of paintings, cobwebs and dirt. LIKE A DICKENS SCENE. Some of the old clothes strewn about the rooms showed how wealthy Mis* Clarke's family must have been. Her mother left her many thousands of pounds under her will. Old velvets, silks, dresses, queer little hats, and even a yachting smit and an early Victorian parasol was hanging on the wall and wrapped in tissue paper. Charles Dickens might well have written up the scene for "Great Expectations." In sonne of the bedrooms there were very line old mahogany beds and antique mirrors, ye I some of the clothes were rotting. Branches of trees had beon brought into the kitchen for the eats to sit upo,n. The leaves were piled on the dresser. Bundles of old material stood in stacks about the door as though Hiss Clarke had tried to reconstruct some of the garments made fifty years ago. A sofa, was covered wkh half an inch of dust, and a heaUitiful piano) stood derelict aiuidist the chaos of the drawing room. Works of art- hung amidst cobwebs on the wall. The chief constable has taken charge of all jewellery and plate in the house. He has deposited ist in a. safe at the police station. There are silver punchbowl ladles and other heavy silver, and jewels which have not been used for years, but were found scattered about the rooms. The police have continued liheiv search for relatives. Miss Clarke has not spoken for days. She is in a very low condition.

If it had not been for the imaginative faculty exercised by Constable Stedmau this large hofase, with its treasures, would have been am the mercy of any unscrupulous person. Over" £2OOO in gold and notes are in the safe custody of the police.