came out a ball of rag, and in it a piece of
ignited tinder. This was found on examination to be made up of
material including a piece of a lady's dress of which the pattern was
distinct, and was found to be a piece of a dress given by a Mrs.
Headley, to Stallan's wife, the remaining part of the dress being found
in his cottage! He was arrested, and at first tried to fix the taking
of the rag for the tinder upon a half-witted lad, but being unable to
shield himself behind this subterfuge, he next went so far as to try
and fix the crime upon his own wife, and again in this he conspicuously
failed, and at the Cambs. Assizes was convicted and sentenced to be
hung, and was executed in December, 1833, after confessing that he had
been the author of all the ten Shelford fires, and that his only motive
for {169} committing the crimes was _to get the ale and the money he
received for helping to extinguish the fires_!

Under such a condition of things as that described above, the farmer
had considerable difficulty in getting any insurance offices to insure
his produce.

One notable riot occurred at Fowlmere (about 1833-35). Warrants were
obtained for the apprehension of the ringleaders, and for executing
this warrant the Earl of Hardwicke, as Lord Lieutenant, came to Royston
and swore in about twenty special constables, whose ornamental staves
sometimes turn up now amongst local curiosities. These constables went
over to Fowlmere on horseback, under the command of a justice of the
peace, Mr. Hawkins, who then lived at the Priory, and was an uncle of
Mr. Justice Hawkins. On arriving at Fowlmere the posse of armed
"specials" found most of the labouring population of the village--male
and female--assembled in the open space near the Swan, armed with
sticks and other weapons, prepared to resist the execution of the
warrant! After some persuasion and the reading of the Riot Act, a
skirmish ensued, in which sticks, fire-irons and shovels, mixed with
constables' staves, produced some cuts and bruises, and some torn
clothes. Eventually the party of the law triumphed, the ringleaders
were secured, and marched off under escort of the special constables to
Cambridge gaol.

Out of the parochial inertia and the demoralization, discontent and
lawlessness, which we have seen springing up, a full crop, from the old
Poor-law, the Commission of 1831 presented a report which left no
alternative but a sweeping measure of reform of the par