The case then came before the Divisional Court, which ruled that the London Cemetery Company was right in resisting the order of Dr. Tristram, and that the grave could not be opened without the licence of the Home Secretary.  The decision was in effect that Dr. Tristram had no jurisdiction to make such an order, except as conditional on the authority of the Home Secretary being obtained.

At length the case reached the Court of Appeal in December, 1899, when Mrs. Druce made no appearance to support the faculty she had obtained, and the appeal was dismissed with costs against her.

In the course of the proceedings the statements of two or three persons who knew Mr. Druce were published in the Press.

Mrs. Hamilton’s narrative was to the effect that from a girl she had known the same gentleman both as Mr. Druce and the Duke of Portland, her father, Mr. Robert Lennox Stuart, being a great friend of his from boyhood days, and, it was averred, distantly related.  There were frequent visits both to Cavendish-square and to the Baker-street Bazaar, and on one occasion, about 1849, Mrs. Hamilton says she was taken by her father to Welbeck where they were met by Druce.  Then, in 1851, her father attended the marriage of Druce and Annie May Berkeley.  At length the time came when Druce determined to be dead to the outer world.  “I must die,” he said to Mr. Stuart.

The arrangements for the death were duly carried out and there ensued a sham burial, at which Mrs. Hamilton says her father was present.

Two years passed away and Mrs. Hamilton was greatly astonished one day to see Mr. Druce enter the house where she and her father were staying.

“I thought you were dead,” she said naively.

Druce was not well pleased at the remark and continued the conversation with her father.

On another occasion Druce took Mrs. Hamilton, then a girl, to Madame Tussaud’s, at which her father was angry; he also gave her money for sweets and flowers.

A great many transactions took place between her father and Druce relative to a lady whom they spoke of as “Emmy,” and who was eventually sent to France, by Druce, who gave her 5,000l.  This was in 1876, and Mr. Stuart went to Welbeck to arrange for the departure with her two children.  She died not long afterwards.  The last time that Mrs. Hamilton says she saw Druce was in 1876, when he called at her father’s and complained of being unwell.  He spoke of his visits to his old friend Stuart as being the happiest hours of his life.  Some little time after the sham burial Mrs. Annie May Druce came to Mrs. Hamilton’s father’s house, and was introduced to Mrs. Hamilton as “Mrs. Druce.”  Another statement was made by Mrs. F. M. Wright, nee Robinson, nee Weatherell, who said that when she was 20 years of age she lived near the Baker-street Bazaar, owned by Mr. T.C.  Druce, and frequently saw that gentleman.  After the supposed death and burial