108 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1812. 



luckily for himself, he had con- 

 trived, while the robber was exa- 

 mining his watch, to slip his 

 pocket-book, containing nearly 

 300/. in notes, under the cushion 

 of the seat. 



25. This morning, at2o'clock, an 

 alarming fire broke out at Mr. Hol- 

 land's, tallow-chandler, South Aud- 

 le5'-street, Grovesnor-square. It 

 began in the back melting ware- 

 house, in Reeves's Mews, and 

 three of the adjoining stables were 

 60on burnt to the ground. There 

 were nearly 400 tons of tallow on 

 the premises, all of which were 

 consumed, and, of course, added 

 greatl)r to the fury of the flames. 

 Fifty chaldron of coals, belonging 

 to a retail dealer in that article, 

 were also consumed. The follow- 

 ing are some of the houses which 

 have been destroyed or damaged 

 on this occasion : — That of Messrs. 

 Stodart and Bolton, Coach-makers, 

 — the carriages all saved ; the 

 house of madarae Jaymond, mil- 

 liner, has sustained much damage; 

 that of Mr. Parsons, baker, Monnt- 

 street, burnt, and, a quantity cf 

 flour ; Mr. Teby's stables, and Mr. 

 Butcher's slaughter-houses, in 

 Reeves's Mews, totally consumed ; 

 the house of Mr. Owen, tinman, 

 much damaged. The 3rd guards, 

 from Portman barracks, and the 

 members of various volunteer as- 

 sociations, attended with great ala- 

 crity, and greatly assisted the fire- 

 men in their exertions. A fireman 

 was considerably bruised by the fall- 

 ing in of the roofof !Mr. Holland's 

 house, but no lives were lost. 



An interesting occurrence took 

 place at Folkingiiam. A poor 

 woman, who had obtained a pass 

 billet to remain there all night, 

 was sitting by the fire of the kit- 



chen of the Greyhound inn, with 

 an infant child at her breast, when 

 two chimney-sweeps came in, who 

 had been engaged to sweep some 

 of the chimneys belonging to the 

 inn early next morning. They 

 were, according to custom treated 

 with a supper, which they had be- 

 gun to eat, when the younger, a 

 boy about seven years of age, hap- 

 pening to cast his eyes upon the 

 woman (who had been likewise 

 viewing them with a fixed atten- 

 tion from their first entrance), 

 started up, and exclaimed in a 

 frantic tone — •' That's my mo- 

 ther !" and immediately flew into 

 her arms ! It appears that her 

 name is Mary Davies, and that she 

 is the wife of a private in the 2nd 

 regiment of foot guards, now serv- 

 ing in the Peninsula ; she resides 

 in Westminster; her husband 

 quitted her to embark for foreign 

 service on the 20th of last Janu- 

 ary ; and on the 28th of the same 

 month she left her son in the care 

 of a woman who occupied the 

 front rooms of her house, while she 

 went to wasli for a family in the 

 neighbourhood ; on her return in 

 the evening, the woman had de- 

 camped with her son, and, not- 

 withstanding every effort was made 

 to discover their retreat, they had 

 not since been heard of ; but hav- 

 ing lately been informed that the 

 woman was a native of Leeds, she 

 had come to the resolution of going 

 there in search of her child, and 

 with this view had walked from 

 London to Folkingham (106 miles) 

 with an infant not more than six 

 weeks old in her arms. The boy's 

 master slated that about the latter 

 end of last January, he met a wo- 

 man and boy in the vicinity of 

 Sleaford, where he resides ; she ap- 

 peared 



