Page:The Trial, at Large, of William Booth and his Associates.pdf/9

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Mr. John Linwood, is one of the Constables of Birmingham, and in consequence of information that had been received, he went to the prisoner's house on Monday the 16th of March last, accompanied by ten special constables and seven dragoons; the party stopt at the Boar's Head. Perry Barr, but he was not there more than a minute; they then proceeded to the prisoner's house, which is situate at Perry Barr, in the parish of Handsworth, in the county of Stafford; it stands at a distance of 200 or 300 yards from any other house; it is apparently an old farm house, into which the entrance is by a porch, on the right hand of which is a hall or kitchen, with a brewhouse and dairy: the dairy is in the front, and the brewhouse behind; there is a passage 6 or 7 feet long, which leads to the parlour; on the left hand of the entrance he attempted to get into this parlour, but it was so fastened that he could not force it open; he went up a staircase within the house, leading out of the kitchen; the door on the left of the staircase which used to lead into the chamber was blocked up with brickwork, apparently new; he then went higher up the stairs, thinking to get into the garret, but the door way there was also bricked up, and a considerable quantity of lumber lay against it. On the right hand the staircase communicated with the rooms over the kitchen; all those on the left hand were blocked up; there was a window in the parlour which looked into the fold, and, by the woodwork, appeared to be a new window, the wood was oak, and very strong, the jambs of the window were laid into the wall, both at top and bottom, for at least 18 inches at each end, and were fastened by an iron pin screwed within-side with a cramp to it, the uprights were the same thickness as the jambs-he supposes they were from eight to ten inches of solid square oak; there were also four round iron bars to that window, they were let into the wood, and were three-fourths of an inch or an inch thick of wrought iron, and about four inches from each other; the inside of that window was plated all over with iron about one-fourth of an inch thick; he is certain the sides and uprights were covered with the iron plate, but is not sure as to the bottom—the top was not so covered; these plates were firmly fastened on with nails, which were large strong nails; there were two windows in the chamber over the parlour, one of which looked into