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History of Brentwood

Brentwood, High Street and Town Hall 1895
Reproduced courtesy of The Francis Frith Collection.

History of Brentwood >> Brentwood Snippets

Brentwood Snippets

When researching for this website we often find a little snippet of information on a location or subject which may be of interest. Some are quirky, some show that there is nothing new in this world, and some about the attitudes and morals of the time. [index to snippets] Here's one for Brentwood about a joke that went wrong.

3 May 1865 Derby Mercury

Practical Joking

A case in which practical joking has led to fearful consequences was heard before Essex magistrates at Brentwood. Six youths, the eldest sixteen years of age, were charged with putting snakes on the person of Ann Mein, a servant girl of seventeen, and thus terrifying her into madness.

In Easter week a party of young girls and youths went, in accordance with annual custom, to a wood, two miles from town, to gather wild flowers.

While there the defedants caught two snakes, and seeing the young woman was terrified at the sight of them, they twisted the reptiles around her neck, and thrust the head of one of them in her mouth.

The terror drove her mad; she was taken home in a raving state, and is now an inmate of the county lunatic asylum at Brentwood, The magistrates, however, thought that the defendants had no malicious intention, and discharged them.

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