tle
trucks, and at a pinch on market day cattle trucks were attached and
the passengers stood up in them!

* * * * * * * *

Having already exceeded the bounds of time and space contemplated for
these Sketches, and travelled a little beyond the period indicated by
the title, the writer might here, in a few words, have taken leave of
his task, but for the fact that he finds himself still in possession of
a small collection of troublesome "fragments," some of them of peculiar
interest, which would not lend themselves very readily to being
classified or blended together into any of the foregoing chapters.
These fragments are chiefly short paragraph records of local events, on
a multitude of topics, and therefore must be treated as such, and
thrown as far as possible into chronological order.

1745. Cooper Thornhill, of the Bell Inn, Stilton, near Huntingdon--in
whose house, from the hands of a relative, Mistress Paulet, originated
Stilton cheese--this year achieved a remarkable feat of horsemanship by
way of Royston to London; riding for 500 guineas from Stilton to
London, 71 miles, in 3 hours and 52 minutes.

1748. In this year, on August 18th, occurred a fire which is memorable
in the annals of Barkway. The record preserved in the parish papers
consists chiefly of the accounts of the losses, but it is sufficient to
show that there must have been nineteen houses burned, {179} and, as
the losses were for small amounts, probably nearly all of them cottages.

I give a few of the articles and items of loss and expense--

A publican and farmer lost "hogsheads bare"; L9 in wine, L16 in "sider"
(cider), 42 cheeses, silver spoons, "a chest of lining [linen] L20,"
and claimant's sister lost in "lining" and other things L7, and there
are "30 trenchers," earthenware and wooden dishes, &c., &c.

John Sharp--my Lost at the fier as Folows--
In weat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 7 0
housal goods to the valuer . . . . . . . . . . 3 0 0
In wood to valuer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 12 0
L3 19 0
Expense at Royston for two Engins and Buckets 1 10 0
Expense at Buntingford for Engine and Bucketts 0 15 0
L2:05: 0

1785. On the 16th June, 1785, there was a fire at Biggleswade, which
in the space of less than five hours burnt down one hundred and th