220 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1«17. 



not at all burnt. Witness was the 

 first person who was at the rick : 

 the ricks were totally destroNed, 

 with the exception of a cart load of 

 the clover (it was the raiddlepart), 

 and a bushel of barley. If the 

 clover rick had fired from heat, it 

 would have begun in the middle. 



The prisoner Haycock lived in 

 the village, and Archer lived about 

 eighty yards from witness's mo- 

 ther's house. A great many neigh- 

 bours came to their assistance ; 

 but neither of the prisoners came. 

 About four o'clock in the morn- 

 ing, witness went to trace foot- 

 steps : the grass was wet with 

 dew, and about twenty yards 

 from the rick he discovered a dis- 

 tinct trace of footsteps, and he 

 followed the trace to the prisoner 

 Arclier's garden-gate ; it was the 

 trace of one peison ; they were 

 from the rick : some part of the 

 steps were traced where theie was 

 no footpath : witness could not 

 trace them beyond the prisoner's 

 gate, bec'iuse the yard was paved. 

 There were no tracks as from the 

 house of the prisoner Arclier. 

 John AUett accompanied witness, 

 and saw the footsteps within 20 

 yards of .Archer's gate. The traces 

 were of a small foot, and tlie right 

 one was a splay ; it turned out 

 more ttian the other. The pri- 

 soner Aicher has a small foot, and 

 it turned out more than any per- 

 son's in the parish. On the same 

 day, witness went to the house of 

 Smith, a shoeniaker, in conse- 

 quence of information he received, 

 and the constable who accom- 

 panied him demanded a pair of 

 shoes. He asked him for a pair 

 of shoes of Archer's, and Smith 

 produced them ; they were very 

 wet and dirty j grass and clover 



were sticking to them : the clover 

 was short. There was clover- 

 grass and clover-hay, and the 

 clover-hay appeared like that of 

 the rick which had been burnt. 

 The shoes had been mended. Wit- 

 ness measured the length and 

 widtli of the shoes, and found 

 tliem coriespond with the marks 

 on the grass. The footsteps must 

 have been after the dew had fallen. 

 The boys who had called "Fire!" 

 might have gone down the village 

 without prisoner Archer hearing 

 the alarm. 



John Allett was raised by the 

 alarm of fiie, and accompanied 

 last witness to trace the foot-steps : 

 witness corroborated the greater 

 part of the testimony of the last 

 witness; and added, that there 

 was a lane at the back of the 

 house, in which the footsteps 

 must be visible, had the same jier- 

 son gone across it whose marks 

 were traced through the fields : he 

 saw the shoes only in the morn- 

 ing, and they did not appear to 

 want mending, but in the after- 

 noon he saw them again, and they 

 were then patched; witness ex- 

 amined the rick the day before the 

 fire, preparatory to thatching it, 

 and there was not the slightest 

 heat in it. 



John Batchelor, a constable of 

 Great Bourton, accompanied John 

 Buckett to Smitli's, the shoe- 

 maker, for the prisoner's shoes : 

 Smith produced them, (this was 

 between four and five o'clock in 

 the afternoon) : witness proved 

 that they were damp and patched, 

 and had grass and dirt on them : 

 witness pioduced them. 



Thomas Smith, a shoe-maker, 

 remembered Batchelor coming 

 after the prisoner's shoes ; witness 



pointed 



