RICH, BUT STARVING

New Zealand Times, Volume LI, Issue 12008, 10 December 1924, Page 3

RICH, BUT STARVING

STRANGE WOMAN’S! HOARD THOUSANDS OF “BRADBURYS' ” GOLD AND SILVER. A MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR. GRAVESEND, November 6. Hundreds of pounds in Bank of England notes, Bradbuiys, gold and silver, have been found, in the house of a: starving, paralysed woman named Miss Oiarke, 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 truth—in fact, it was because he acted upon the novels he had read that Police-Con-stable Stedman made the discovery. OFFICER’S DAUGHTER. The woman is a mystery, but from documents found by the police, who arc anxious to trace her relatives, it appears that Miss Clarke is 70 years of age. Her full name is Miss Agnes Rdmsay, Cl like . She is the daughter of the late Captain Alexander Clarke, a British Army officer, who married a Miss Leishman, a German woman. The family, in the middle of last century, lived at 10, Bluanen-strasse, Stuttgart, VVurtemhurg, but they travelled all over the world. Miss Clarke appears to he the last of her family. She was baptised atPenang in 1&54. She was found by a. neighbour. Mrs Raspusson, lying ill in the garden a few days ago, and removed to her bed. Dr. Hancock 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-story ectj house, they were amazed at condition in which it was found. Neglect everywhere showed itself, and its appearance confirmed a statement made that Miss Clarke had not been visited, \by anyone for twenty-eight years. When the police went hock to make the house secure they were met by howls from two old black, emaciated black cats. ■ There was no. food in the house except a bag of bananas and apples. In, one of the rooms the police saw a mahogany wardrobe open. Hanging from hooks inside were bundles of first issue Bradbuiys, tied up hv string, bootlaces, and dirty torn handkerchiefs. The search began just after midnight and lasted seven hours. NOTES WITH RUBBISH. With the aid of torchlights the police peered 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 this morning in a motor-car. The wardrobe yielded ■ hundreds of notes, bundles 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 bag! filled with sovereigns, and a number of half-crowns ■ and florins. Bundles of thirty and forty one-pound notes were stuffed away amongst the old linen. ' In Miss Clarke’s -bed—a strange mahogany 1 box-bed of the early Victorian era—they found between the mattresses a great pile ,of Bonk of Englakid notes. , Search was made of the big boxes and trunks scattered over the bare boards an the different rooms, and there tumbled out a profusion of old silks and lace, and millinery of eighty years ago—-crinolines and bustles and other garments of fine quality, which had apparently not. been touched for half a century. A LARGE FORTUNE. Thousands of _ letters were found, showing that Miss Clarke had handled a large fortune, and; that she owned houses, stocks, and securities in Gravesend and London. But not one single letter was found darted 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. Mis 3 Clarke evidently lived in the kitchen and one bedroom with her carts. She had several locks on her front door, and every window of this big bouse has been barred for years. Yet, except to her . neighbour, she has maintained an astonishing hermitage in the centre of a busy town, for most .of her life. Beautiful old oak tables, mahogany and walnut bureaus and beds were mired 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 Miss 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 suit and an early Victorian parasol was hanging on -the .wall ana wrapped in tissue paper. -' Charles Dickens might well have written, up the scene for “Great Expectations. In some of the bedrooms there were very fine old mahogany beds and antique mirrors, yet some of the clothes were rotting. Branches of trees had been brought into the kitchen for the cats to sit upon. ’.Tie leaves .were piled on the dresser. Bundles of old. material stood in stacks about the floor as though Miss Clarke bad tried to reconstruct some of *the garments made fifty years ago- ' A sofa was covered with half an inch of dust, and a beautiful piano stood derelict amidst the chao9 of the draw-ing-room. Works of art hung amidst cobwebs on the wall. The chief constable hts taken charge of all jewellery and plate in the house. He has deposited it in a big safe at the polioa station. There are silver punch-bowl 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 their search for relatives. . Miss Clarke has not spoken for days. She is in a very low 1 condition.

tive faculty exercised by Constable Stedman this large house, with its treasures, would have been at the mercy ,of any unscrupulous person. Over £2OOO in gold and notes are in the safe custody of the police.