358 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1804. 



o'clock, the conflagration had gained 

 too much power to admit of any 

 control ; its blazes were seen tor 

 nearly 20 miles round the country, 

 pa.-:icularly atGateshead-FelliHam- 

 sterly, and Hough ron-le-Spring, 

 which had a grand and awful effect. 

 At seven in the morning, nothing 

 remained ol the stupendous building 

 but the shell, which fell to the 

 ground in the course of the day. It 

 is understood that the loss sustain- 

 ed, after deducting what has been 

 insured, will amount to upwards of 

 20-0001. 



12th. At a meeting of the anti- 

 quarian Society, this day, a letter 

 of Mr. Jackson's was read on the 

 Antient Utica, which was next in 

 extent and magaitude to Carthage, 

 and in the same gulph. Here Mr. 

 Jackson visited the subterraneous 

 vaults, in which the ceilings were 

 covered Mith bats of an enormous 

 size, called, by Virgil, Harpies, 

 wiiich being disturbed, left their 

 places, and nearly extinguished the 

 flambeaux; ami, but for a lanthofn, 

 the curious visitors might have been 

 lost in tlie dark. In the sanie place 

 Mr. Jackson found foxes burrow- 

 ing in the under-ground ruins. The 

 air in these caverns was oppressive, 

 but by discharging tire arms was 

 much puritied, and became respira- 

 ble with safety. 



13th. This day Francis Smith, 

 olhcr of excise, was tried at the 

 Old Bailey for the wilful murder of 

 T. Millwood. If ap})eared on the 

 evidence of Mr. Locke, wine mer- 

 chant, in Hanmiersmith, that, that 

 tovvn had been infested with a pre- 

 tended ghost for five weeks previonsly 

 to the ailedged /act being committ >d. 

 Several parties had gone out io tia 

 pnr|)()se ol rti-covering it. Its dress 

 had been described as sometimes in 



white and sometimes as if in the skin 

 of somebcSist. He was returning to 

 his own house on the night of the 

 Sd of January, in company with 

 another person, about half-past ten 

 o'clock, when he met the prisoner 

 in wonderful trepidation, who in- 

 formed him that he had shot a man, 

 believing him to be the pretended 

 spectre who had so long terrified the 

 town, and wished to surrender him- 

 self immediately. He added that he 

 had challenged the deceased twice, 

 but who, instead of answering him, 

 marched up to him, which increased 

 the prisoner's fear. Mr. Locke, his 

 companion, and the watchman, who 

 had now come up, all proceeded to 

 Limekiln-Lane, where they found 

 the deceased lying dead, and ob- 

 served that a shot had passed 

 through his under jaw. The wit- 

 ness concluded his testimony by as- 

 serting his thorough knowledge of 

 the prisoner, and his conviction of 

 his mild disposition, humanity, and 

 generosity, and the general high es- 

 timation in which he was held by 

 the whole vicinage. 



William Girdicr, watchman, at 

 Hammersmith, met the prisoner, 

 with a gun in his hand, about half- 

 past ten at night, who told him he 

 was going to look after the ghost, 

 and further corroborated the whole 

 of the preceding evidence. 



The sister of the deceased said she 

 lived in her fatlier's house at Ham- 

 mersmith ; on the 3d of January, 

 between ten and eleven at night, her 

 brother came in. He had been to 

 seek his wife, who was at a friend's 

 in the neighbourhood. After re- 

 maining some time in the house, he 

 again went out for the same pur- 

 pose ; a minute or two afterwards, 

 standing at the door, she heard a 

 voice exclaim '• Damn you^ who or 



what 



