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The proceedings of that fine old institution, the coroner's court, are apt to have their dignity is amidst which they are conducted The present inquiry was to be held in a long room attached to the inn, ordinarily devoted, as its various appurtenances testified, to gatherings of a more convivial character

Hither I betook myself after a protracted lunch and athe first to arrive--the jury having already been sworn and conducted to the mortuary to view the re the habits of the custoht of the objects contained in it A wooden target with one or two darts sticking in it hung on the end wall and invited the Robin Hoods of the village to try their skill; a systeestions of shove-halfpenny; and a large open box, filled hite wigs, gaudily coloured robes and wooden spears, swords and regalia, crudely coated with gilded paper, obviously appertained to the puerile ceremonials of the Order of Druids

I had exhausted the interest of these relics and had transferred allery when the other spectators and the witnesses began to arrive Hastily I seated myself in the only comfortable chair besides the one placed at the head of the table, presumably for the coroner; and I had hardly done so when the latter entered accoeant, Inspector Badger, one or two plain-clothes eon

The coroner took his seat at the head of the table and opened his book, and the jury seated the table I looked with soood roup of British tradesmen, quiet, attentive, and rather solemn; but my attention was particularly attracted by a s hair whoent but truculent countenance and the shiny knees of his trousers, as the village cobbler He sat between the broad-shouldered foreed, red-faced ested the calling of a butcher

"The inquiry, gentle concerns itself with two questions The first is that of identity: Who was this person whose body we have just viewed? The second is, Hohen, and by what means did he coin with the circumstances under which the body was discovered"