CAPTURE OF DAN DAWSON. 39 



across the hill almost every morning, and passes 

 our house about the time when the horses go out 

 to exercise, at a very early hour. He carries his 

 head as though he were ashamed to have his face 

 seen." 



As soon as the horses were taken ill, Dan 

 Dawson left the "Five Bells." The First Spring- 

 Meeting of 1811 was then near its close, and 

 several months were yet to elapse before the sus- 

 pected culprit was arrested at Cambridge, on 

 August 12, 1812. Into the details of his trial 

 and death sentence I shall not enter, beyond 

 saying that it seems incredible in these days that 

 a man should be hanged for such an offence. One 

 justification of the sentence being carried out in 

 its full severity was said to be, that although 

 horses were the only sufferers, it was obvious that 

 human beings might with equal facility have been 

 poisoned, because in the summer months the lads 

 on the backs of the horses frequently drank at 

 the same troughs. Mrs Tilbrook of the " Five 

 Bells," being, like most of her sex, of an inquisitive 

 disposition, had examined Dan Dawson's luggage, 

 which he kept under his bed at her house. She 

 soon discovered a bottle marked "poison" in one 

 of his trunks ; and in the neck of this bottle there 

 was a flaw which made it easy of identification. 

 The bottle was afterwards found in Dan Dawson's 

 possession, and was shown to Mrs Tilbrook, who 

 stated, "If it be the same bottle I found under his 



