Baby

The body of a newly-born female child was found under a tree at Embercombe.

It was found by a Plymouth man in a brown paper parcel neatly tied with string.

The man that found it, a landscape gardener that lived in St Peters Hostel in King Street, Plymouth, said that it was concealed amongst the roots of a fallen tree at the side of the cliff skirting the walk through the field at Embercombe.

A police constable that examined the parcel said that there were no marks of identification of any kind on the wrappings.

He said that he had made inquiries in the district and had accounted for all the children whose births had been registered within the past few months.

The doctor that examined the child said that the body was that of a female child some few weeks old.

He said that it had been wrapped in some old pieces of cotton and was in such a very advanced state of decomposition that it was impossible to determine the cause of death.

He said that it must have been dead for a fortnight.

An open verdict was returned.