"Fowl Murder!" Sarah Skiven's black hen had been poisoned and the reporter for The Western Times of 5th February 1848 did not resist the pun:
"RICHARD GARDNER was charged by Sarah Skiven with killing her poultry. The complainant stated that on the 26th December she saw the defendant driving her fowls through his garden, which adjoined her's, in Paul-street, and requested him not to ill use them.
"She heard him say to his wife "I'll poison the ---- lot of them." On the next day she saw him throwing something like crumbs of bread, which were picked up by a black fowl: -
"'Murder most fowl, as in the best it is -/ But this most fowl, strange and unnatural'
"The animal shivered, sickened and died.... hence this summons.
"She had also seen the defendant give one of her ducks some soaked bread, and a kick, the united effects of which had reduced the poor bird to a most disconsolate condition. - she was produced in a basket, presenting her long bill like a despairing suitor, hopeless of redress."
The Mayor of Exeter, unlike, it would seem, The Times' reporter, took Sarah Skiven's loss seriously. he had asked Mr. Charles Henry Kingdon, surgeon, to perform a post mortem examination on her hen and the court was satisfied that acetate of lead had been administered with malice and Richard Gardner was fined 5s and costs.
Paul Street, Exeter, where once Sarah Skiven's fowl trepassed, now exemplifies some of the most barbarous architecture in the United Kingdom! Bring back the chickens!
Glory to the newspaperman who gives the duck her proper pronoun and who can quote (misquote) from Hamlet!!
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