\6 



ANNUAL REGISTER, ISH. 



do, had enabled him to obtain this 

 booty. 



The explosion of the gunpowder 

 carried the burnt papers, ships re- 

 gisters, and a variety of matter, as 

 far as Dalston, Shacklewell, Ho- 

 merton. Hackney, and all the ad- 

 joining villages in the direction of 

 the wind. 



A bundle of singed debentures 

 is said to have been picked up by 

 a gentleman at as great a distance 

 from the scene of destruction as 

 Spital-square. 



The following additional parti- 

 culars have been communicated 

 with regard to this lamentable 

 event : — 



The fire broke out at a quarter 

 past six o'clock in the morning, 

 and is understood to have origi- 

 nated from a fire-flue of one of the 

 offices of business, adjoining a 

 closet attached to the house-keep- 

 er's apartments. This closet was 

 on the two-pair of stairs. 



From the time of the morning 

 at which it began, and from the 

 instant burst of flame from the 

 back part of the building, there 

 can be little doubt of the fire 

 having been slumbering in a latent 

 state throughout the principal part 

 of the previous evening. 



The porter of the house was the 

 first person who discovered it. He 

 was going up stairs for a key to 

 admit him, as usual, to a part of 

 the house that communicated with 

 the offices, and when on the se- 

 cond floor he heard a crackling of 

 fire, and saw a flame breaking 

 from the ceiling; he instantly 

 rushed into the room, which was 

 that in which Color.el Kelly slept, 

 whom he found standing by the 

 bed feet, the curtains in a blaze, 

 and the flame pouring from the 



above-mentioned closet. By this 

 time the whole room was on fire, 

 and a Mr, Drinkald had given the 

 alarm from the quay, towards 

 which the windows of this room 

 looked. The porter proceeded to 

 call up the servants and the fa- 

 mily ; the Colonel ran to a room 

 adjoining his own, which was 

 fronting the street: he was saved 

 by a ladder with the greatest diffi- 

 culty, and shockingly burnt in the 

 face and hands. 



The account he gives is, that he 

 was awakened by a smoke which 

 filled his room, and almost in a 

 state of suffocation he arose and 

 opened his closet, for the purpose 

 of getting at his dressing-gown, 

 that he might hasten to alarm the 

 family ; but immediately upon 

 opening this closet, a volume of 

 flame burst forth — the curtains of 

 the bed and those of the windows 

 caught fire, and thus encompassed 

 with the blaze, he was found by 

 the porter. It appears that in this 

 closet there was formerly a fire- 

 place, which, for a long time, had 

 been boarded up, the flue of which 

 was connected with another in an 

 office below. 



The Miss Kellys most narrowly 

 escaped, with only the covering of 

 blankets ; and Captain Hinton 

 Kelly made his way through the 

 fire with his sisters in the same 

 unprovided state. The Captain 

 had but the day before returned 

 from Brighton, where he had been 

 for the recovery of his health, 

 which had suffered greatly in con- 

 sequence of long service in the 

 West Indies. 



Most of the servants had pre- 

 viously fled to the top of the house, 

 from which they were taken down 

 by ladders. It is to be deplored, 



