The Notting Hill Mystery

My task is done. In possession of the evidence thus placed before you, your judgment of its result will be as good as mine. Link by link you have now been put in possession of the entire chain. Is that chain one of purely accidental coincidences, or does it point with terrible certainty to a series of crimes, in their nature and execution almost too horrible to contemplate? That is the first question to be asked, and it is one to which I confess myself unable to reply. The second is more strange, and perhaps even more difficult still. Supposing the latter to be the case, are crimes thus committed susceptible of proof, or even if proved, are they of a kind for which the criminal can be brought to punishment?

1

Great-aunt of the late Mrs. Anderton. The object of going so far back will presently appear.

2

Scratched out.

3

The residence of Sir Edward Boleton.

4

This letter is omitted as containing nothing of any importance.

5

The late Miss Boleton.

6

Section I. No. 12.

7

An extract from the magazine here quoted will be given later on in the case.

8

The difficulty of tracing this witness, from the slight clue afforded by Mr. Morton's statement, occasioned considerable delay.

9

Compare Section II., 2 and 5.

10

This portion of Dr. Watson's statement, relating entirely to the symptoms of Mrs. Anderton's case, though some details are excluded, necessarily contains much that must be interesting only to the medical profession and disagreeable to the general reader. The following paragraph may therefore be passed over, merely noting that the symptoms were such as would be compatible with antimonial poisoning.

11

Apparently the journal, which is bound in brown Russian leather.

12

See next page.

13

Compare Sections II., 2 and 5; and III., 1.

14

Compare Mrs. Anderton's Journal. Dec, 9.

15

On inquiry I find this to have been the decoction of Peruvian bark. – R. H.

16

Compare Section III., 2.

17

1856, R. H.

18

Clearly so. The Baron was in Dublin on 25th Feb. – R. H.

19

This portion of Mrs. Brown's evidence affects more particularly the part of the case to be hereafter referred to in Part vii.; but I have thought it best to preserve it intact. – R. H.

20

Comp. journal of Mrs. Anderton, 25th May and 10th June. Vide Section III. 3.

21

These extracts will, of course, be chiefly interesting to the medical profession, and may be passed over by the general reader. Some details are necessarily excluded. The notes, also, relating to the treatment adopted by Dr. Marsden, not materially affecting the question at issue, which is concerned only with the symptoms of disorder, are omitted as irrelevant, and therefore confusing. Vide note to statement of Dr. Watson, Section III., 2.

22

7th June. – R. H.

23

Compare Section III., 3, &c.

24

Vide Section V., 5.

25

The evidence of Sergeant Walsh is enclosed, but is merely corroborative of the present statement. – R. H.

26

The housemaid's deposition corroborates this part of the evidence.

27

Section II. 2.

28

This I find to be the case. – R. H.

29

The chemists from whom the Baron obtained his medicines.

30

The arrangement alluded to will be seen from the accompanying plan. The inner partition is entirely of glass, while the outer has a row of large panes along the top.

31

In a former portion of the case we are told that this patient was clairvoyant and could see her own internal condition. – R. H. pard.

32

"Taylor on Poisons." 2nd edition, p. 98, et inf.