air.* avettator," fnap 1t, 1S52.
The Fire Fiend has been very busy of late in various parts of the country.
An immense fire, ascribed to an incendiary, devastated the village of Harwell in Berkshire, on Saturday night and Sunday morning: nearly half the village was consumed. Eight or nine farm-steadings were wholly destroyed; two farm dwelling- houses, four houses with shops, and thirteen cottages, were swept away; two dwelling-houses, three cottages, some alms- houses, and a public-house, were damaged: altogether, thirty families were deprived of their homes. A vagrant had been refused alms on Saturday afternoon; with an oath, he "wished the village burned down," and subsequently he begged some lucifer-matches at a cottage. Soon after this, at about evening dusk, the fire was discovered; it seemed to commence at several points at once; there was a strong wind, and the flames soon became unconquerable by the rural engines. Mr. Whitcher, a London Detective, has gone to Harwell to make enquiries.
Cottenham in Cambridgeshire—so often ravaged by fires— suffered again on Thursday week. At three o'clock in the afternoon flames burst from a straw-stack, and rapidly spread; thirteen houses and cottages were destroyed, with farm-buildings and agricultural produce: loss estimated at £4,000. Incendiarism is suspected. _
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