OBITUARY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6482, 27 February 1889, Page 4

OBITUARY.

-•■,■« . ■ . j FEANCIS HOULTON. \4>. Many of our readers will learn with great regret that news reached this Colony by the last mail of the death of '■ Mr F. Houlton, who haa resided in Canterbury for several years, and only recently left on a vißit to England. While in this Colony Mr Houlton made many friends, who esteemed him very highly on account of his kindly disposition and social- and artistic qualities. The sad cause of his sudden death iB related in the columns of a West of England paper as follows:— - On Jan. 9 the Coroner for East Somerset, 1 Mr S. Craddocfci held an inquest at the ' Houlton Armß Inn, Farleigh Castle, on the ! body of Francis Houlton, aged thirty-three, the owner of the Farleigh Castle estates, situated on the borders of Somerset and Wilts, and celebrated for its grand old ruined castle, so familiar to visitors in the summer time. The deceased, who had spent much of his early life in travelling abroad (his mother and sister being now in Germany), came to his | ancestral estates to spend the Christmas \ holidays; and took up his abode at Farleigh Cottage, the mansion having been vacant since the removal of | Miss Laverton, sister of the late Mr A. Laverton, J.P., to Bradford-on-Avon. On Monday afternoon, at two o'clock; by direction of his master, the groom, William Davis, took his horse saddled and bridled, to the door. Mr Houlton mounted, and went off at a canter down the Tellisford road, for the purpose of meeting his steward (Mr Thomas TWill), to arrange about some business connected with the estate. A minute afterwards Frederick Francis, under-gamekeeper to Mr W. H. Laverton, who rents, the shooting, observed a horse saddled, but without a rider* galloping down the road towards him. At the same time Thomas Huntley, the head-keeper, saw the same, and proceeded to the spot, when the latter noticed a man's knee raised in the ditch. He found a man unconscious, without a hat, and he only opened his eyes and moved hia hands. Patting his own coat under his head for a pillow, he went for assistance, and met Mr Towill, and they found i that the dying man was the young squire. They carried him to his residence and dis- ! patched a mounted messenger to Freshford, the nearest place, for Dr C. E. S. Flemming, who was in immediate attendance, but his services were unavailing, for the patient never recovered consciousness, and expired at nine o'clock the same evening. The cause of death was fracture of the skull, and he had a bruise on his right thigh. The supposition is, as the horse was fresh aud the squire wore spurs, that the animal jumped suddenly forward and threw its rider backwards, as his hat 1 and eye-glasses were found some 150 yards from where hefelL The horse, it was said, I waa given to " bucking," but the groom said he exercised it for two hours that morning, and wore spurs, but it went very j well with him. The Jury returned a verdict of "Accidental death." The sad event (adds the paper) has cast a gloom over the whole neighbourhood, where the deceased gentleman was much beloved for his genial and pleasant ways. He was to have taken part in an amateur dramatic | entertainment at Captain Batten-Pool's mansion on the 15th, but it has been postponed. Canon Jackson, the Trustee to the estate, was present at the inquest. i The deceased gentleman was the last male I lineal descendant of the Houltons.