The Daily Dispatch: August 26, 1861., [Electronic resource]

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A Shocking death.

--The wife of Dr. Brodhurst, a London physician, has met death in much the same horrible manner as the wife of Professor Longfellow. The doctor left her writing a note in the drawing- room, but was recalled by loud cries of "I'm on fire!" He rushed down and found his wife in the middle of the drawing-room, enveloped in flames. Her clothes were entirely consumed, and the furniture near her was on fire. She had on a while muslin dress. She did not seem to have lost her presence of mind, for she requested the rug to be rolled around her, and the bell to be rung for the servants, which he did, and extinguished the flames about the upper part of her person. Immediately the bell was rung, three servants rushed in, and he believed the reason of their being so near the door was because his wife had rung the bell before for prayers. Unfortunately, she had one of those crinolines made of steel hoops. Every means was tried to extinguish the fire about and under the hoops with the sofa cushions and other things at hand. He also knelt down and tried to compress and break them for the purpose of putting the fire out, but all without avail, and they had to be cut off before they could be extinguished. She had been writing with a candle by her side, which had burnt down in the socket, and he believed she had tried to reach an envelope from the case when the light caught her muslin sleeve.