MELANCHOLY DEATH OF A YOUNG FARMER.—on the Saturday an inquest was held by Mr. W. Carter, the coroner four East Surrey, in a cottage at Chepstead, near Reigate, on the body of Mr. James Sherman, aged 25 years, who died under the melancholy circumstances subjoined :—
William Page, a shepherd’s boy, stated that on Thursday morning lost he was at work on Marshal’s farm, and while standing at the side of a field, he heard the report of firearms, which was followed by a whistle, and on looking into the adjoining meadow witness saw a dog lying by the side of a male person, who was face downwards. Another dog was near the spot, and a double-barrelled gun was under the deceased. Witness ran to a labourer named King, who procured assistance, and then they identified the deceased. He was carried to his residence, where Mr. Peskett and another medical gentlemen pronounced him to be quite dead. James King, a farm labourer, confirmed the evidence of the last witness, and added that he saw the deceased in the field shooting at a covey of partridges, and in half an hour afterwards he was called by Page to the lifeless body. Mr. W. Peskett, surgeon of Petersfield, said that he was called to see the deceased, whom he found to be dead, and life had been extinct about an hour. There were no marks of violence on the body, excepting a slight abrasion of the skin on the forehead, no doubt caused by falling on the ground. The pupil of the left eye was dilated, and the vessels of the neck much congested. Witness and the other medical gentleman were of opinion that the deceased died from a sudden attack of apoplexy, arising upon natural consequences. The coroner remarked on the case, when the jury returned a verdict of ‟Natural Death from Apoplexy.”