DAWN was breaking on February 4, 1863, when a woman on her way to Southampton market inadvertently kicked what she thought was nothing more than discarded canvass.

Imagine Elizabeth Strugnell's horror when she turned it over and saw the fixed stare of a newly born girl.

Strugnell, who lived at Itchen Ferry, screamed to boatman James Hartley for help as the parcel tied with a piece of thick twine burst open to reveal her toes.

Hartley had just landed the 7am floating bridge crossing that had borne just four passengers from the Woolston side of the River Itchen when he heard her call out.

"She said 'I do believe here is a dear little baby.' I went and took it up and sure enough there was one. The paper was quite wet and there was a lot of long grass hanging to the twine. It was about ten yards from the high tide. There was black wadding in the parcel."

Delivering his evidence at the inquest three days later, he revealed it had been lying by the right chain but was too dry for it to have been dropped overboard. The floating bridge had made two crossings earlier that morning but he had not seen a woman passenger.

The body was conveyed to a nearby house where it was collected by surgeon Samuel Summers who began his post-mortem examination by undoing the string around the package which had been sealed with red wax and bore the impression of a thimble.

Though the body had been pressed together to make the parcel oblong shaped, there was no sign the baby had been physically violated.

"It was a full grown child and perfect, not decomposed in the least," he reported. "I should the child had been born no more or less than 12 hours. It had been born alive, I have not the slightest doubt about that."

But the doctor could not give the authorities any clue as to the mother's identity as there were no marks on the paper.

Coroner J H Todd, who conducted the hearing at the Cliff Hotel, Itchen, thought her mother lived locally and had dumped the baby on the Southampton side of the river, but in his summing up, he cautioned jurors: "I am not quite sure the evidence is strong enough for you to come to a verdict of wilful murder but it was as near a case of murder as it is quite evident she has been killed through wilful neglect."

Jurors returned a verdict of 'wilful murder against a person or persons unknown.'