_Has Execution by Hanging been survived?_--I have heard vague and
indiscriminate tales of persons who, as criminals, have undergone
infliction of the punishment of hanging without total extinction of life;
but I have always been disposed to look upon such accounts as mere fables,
till lately, in turning over some newspapers of the year 1740, I found a
case mentioned, under such circumstances that, if it were untrue, its
refutation might have been easily accomplished. By _The Craftsman_ of
Saturday, Sept 27, 1740, it appears one William Dewell had been concerned
in the violation, robbery, and murder of a young woman in a barn at Acton
(which place has so recently been the scene of another horrible crime).
_The Craftsman_ of Saturday, Nov. 29, 1740, states that Dewell, having
undergone execution, and being brought to Surgeons Hall to be anatomised,
_symptoms of life appeared, and he quite recovered_.[5] This strikes me as
a most unaccountable story; but perhaps similar ones may have been met with
in the reading of some of your correspondents.
[Sigma].
[Footnote 5: [Matt of the Mint in the _Beggar's Opera_ says, "My poor
brother Tom had an accident this time twelve-month; and so clever a made
fellow he was, that I could not save him from those flaying rascals the
surgeons; and now, poor man, he is among the 'otamies at Surgeons' Hall."
The executed culprit noticed by our correspondent, however, seems to have
been _re-animated_ at Surgeons' Hall.--ED.]]
_Maps of Dublin._--In Gough's _Topographical Antiquities of Great Britain
and Ireland_, p. 689., it is stated that there is a map of the city and
suburbs of Dublin, by Charles Brookin, 1728, and a map of the Bay and
Harbour of Dublin, with a small plan of the city, 1728. I have Brookin's
map of the city, 1728, but I have never seen or heard of any person who had
seen the map of the Bay and Harbour of 1728. Possibly some of your
correspondents could give information on the subject, and also state
whether there be any map of the city, either manuscript or printed, between
Speed's map of 1610 and Brookin's of 1728, and where?