_Mode of Discovering the Bodies of the Drowned._--What must we think of
the following, transcribed from the _Gentleman's Mag._, vol. xxxvii. p.
189.? Can such things be?
"WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 1767.
"An inquisition was taken at _Newbery_, _Berks_, on the body of a
child near two years old, who fell into the river _Kennet_, and
was drowned. The jury brought in their verdict _accidental death_.
The body was discovered by a very singular experiment, which was
as follows:--After diligent search had been made in the river for
the child, to no purpose, a two-penny loaf, with a quantity of
quicksilver put into it, was set floating from the place where the
child it was supposed had fallen in, which steered its course down
the river upwards of half a mile, before a great number of
spectators, when the body happening to lay on the contrary side of
the river, the loaf suddenly tacked about, and swam across the
river, and gradually sunk near the child, when both the child and
loaf were immediately brought up, with grabbers ready for that
purpose."
Is this experiment ever tried at the present time, and do there exist
any authentic accounts of such trials and their results?
* & ?
Manpadt House.
_Somersetshire Rhyme._--In Vol. iii., p. 206., there is mention of a
traditional rhyme on Lynn and Rising. At Taunton, in Somersetshire,
there is a similar tradition current:
"Nertown was a market town
When Taunton was a furzy down."
This Nertown is a village adjoining Taunton, and lying on the north side
of it. Its name is variously regarded as a corruption of Northtown
Near-town, and Nethertown, of which the last is doubtless the right
derivation.