AFFECTING CIRCUMSTANCE.
On Sunday, the 22nd ult. as some young men were nutting in the woods near the Old Upper Blue Bell, on the old road to Maidstone, they observed a female lying under a tree apparently asleep, and passed on without disturbing her. On the succeeding Friday the young men again went nutting to the same place, when to their extreme surprise they saw the female lying in the precise place and attitude in which they had seen her before: one of them went to her, and took her by the hand; she was alive, but in such a situation as excited the most shuddering sensations of horror and disgust, mixed with surprise, that a human being could retain any portion of animation under such complicated sufferings of want and wretchedness. She was almost in a state of putrefaction, large maggots were feeding on every part of her frame; exposed to the attack of flies; her nostrils, and even her mouth were infested by them; behind her ears, between her fingers, and between her toes, they were drawling in sickening quantities; and her clothes were literally rotten from long exposure to the varying and humid 
atmosphere. With a laudable alacrity they applied for assistance at the Blue Bell, and with the assistance of two men the unfortunate sufferer was placed upon a hurdle, and conveyed to an outhouse, where such necessaries and comforts as could be procured were immediately prepared for her. Mr. Browne, surgeon, of Rochester, was sent for, and immediately came to visit her; and through his humane, kind, and constant attention, this unfortunate woman has been rescued from the jaws of death, and is now in a fair way of recovery. The account she gives of herself is, that her name is Ann Martin; she came from Lewes some time back with an artillery soldier to Chatham barracks; but that she had left him, and had determined on returning home to Lewes; that being destitute of money, and oppressed by fatigue, she, in a fit of despair, laid herself down to die; that she had lain where she was discovered ever since the Sunday preceding that on which she was first seen, and consequently had been eleven days and nights without any kind of food!
The Observer, 13 October 1816
Photo: Upper Bell Inn, courtesy Dover-Kent 2014 project to list all pubs
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