The Sun.
London, England, 1845-12-08 00:00:00

INCENDIARY FIRES IN NOTTING

HAMSHIRE.

During the past few weeks, incendiary fires have been
blazing in different villages in this county, which have
naturally created great excitement amongst the inhabi-
tants, particularly the farmers, who, as a class, have
been selected as victims. It is not for us to assign a
cause for these diabolical and grievous outrages, at a
juncture when the nation is threatened with famine and
distress; but time, perhaps, will unfoldiwhat judgment
cannot penetrate.

INCENDIARY FIRE NEAR OXTON.—On Saturday last
an incendiary fire took place at Ramsdale Farm, a dis-
tance of five miles and a half from this town. This farm
belongs to Mr. Joseph Whittaker, and is one of the
largest in the county, and is situate near to the village
of Oxton; but, happily, whatever mischief may be done
upon it by incendiary acts, the occupier can sustain
very little injury, as he has insured all stacks to the
amount of 2,000/. The spot where this fire took place
is about half a mile distant from the farm-house, and in
a field at a considerable distance from any road. During
the harvest Mr. Whittaker has been in the habit of
having stacks put in the fields where the corn has been
reaped, and in the present year he has placed upon a hill
called the " Twelve Acres," three barley stacks, two of
which have recently been thrashed, and the straw made
into one stack. On Saturday night, about nine o'clock,
Mr. Marriott, of Halam, while returning from Notting-
ham market, on horseback, on approaching within sight
of the " Twelve Acres" hill perceived a tremendous
glare of light, and on hastening towards it he found the
straw stack all in flames. The horizon being extensively
illuminated, several people were at the same moment on
their way to discover the cause, and very soon on the
spot. Mr. Marriott gallopped to Mr. Whittaker's, and
then to Nottingham for the engines, but the fire had
got so much a-head, that it soon appeared useless to at-
tempt to put it out, and especially as there was no
water at hand. The Nottingham town engine was in a
few minutes on the spot, and gallopped at an expedition
which soon knocked up one of the horses, which was
left by the road-side; no doubt the several high and long
hills on the road contributed much to occasion this dis-
aster. An alarm was quickly spread, the county police,
on horseback, and crowds of people, hastened to the
spot, expecting to find that Mr. Whittaker's farm-yard,
containing thirty stacks, was in a general state of con-
flagration. Fortunately this was not the case, and during
the early part of the fire the wind changed, and blew the
flames from instead of upon the barley stack, situate
within a few yards of the burning straw. The fire being
confined to the straw stack, it was allowed to burn with-
out further interruption, and at two o'clock in the morn-
ing the entire stack was consumed. This makes the
seventh fire within as many weeks that we have recorded
in this part of the country, and at the time (Monday)
we are writing this paragraph, reports have reached the
town that two other fires have taken place—one at
Arnold, and the other at Sawley.
We may here remark, that the circumstances con-
nected with the fires in Wool-alley and Robin Hood-
yard, on the premises occupied by Mr. Bates, frame-
smith, and Mr. Baldock, grocer, in the month of October
last, are still involved in mystery, and it is singular, that
at the period these fires took place, a tall person in the
attire of a female was seen in the immediate vicinity,
not one hundred yards from the two buildings, and from
the suspicious appearance that it was a man in woman's
clothing ; this individual was actually traced by Mr.
Brierley, governor of the county gaol, who, no doubt,
thought it possible to be one of the escaped convicts. A
person of a similar description was said to have been at
Beeston on the night of the fire at Mr. Walker's stack-
yard, and though on an attempt being made to trace out
who this person was, Mrs. Harwood, a very respectable wo-
man, was found to have been in the street waiting for some
members of her family coming home, yet we have heard
other statements to induce an opinion that she was not
the individual who excited attention, and answered the
description we first heard on the night of the fire.
INCENDIARY FIRE AT ARNOLD.—An act of incen-
diarism was committed at this village, which is four
miles from this town, on Sunday night last, which owning
to its being timely discovered, and the speedy arrival of
the Arnold engine, did very little damage. About six
o'clock in the evening, a servant in the employ of Mr.
Sneath, who has only lived six months at Arnold, hap-
pened to go out of his master's house to the stack-yard,
when he found one of the haystacks in flames. He
gave an alarm, and the fire was fortunately extinguished
after burning between two and three tons of hay. The
stack was situate more than a hundred yards from any
house. The alarm created by this and Mr. Whittaker's
fire, not two miles distant, occasioned all the farmers in
the neighbourhood to set their labourers and servants
on watch during the whole of the night, and a report of
a fire at Sawley has awakened an excitement which will
take some time to allay.—Nottingham Review.