Lightning strike affected John Snowball's memory
Northern Echo, January 14
Reporter visits Belmount and has a meal with John Snowball:
Old Mr Snowball is apparently about seventy years of age, and the recent murder of his son appeared to have had but a very slight, if any effect upon his nerves. He is tall and slim, and his figure slightly bent with age; otherwise he seems hale and hearty, and walked with none of that tottering gait with which he has been credited.
Northern Echo, January 22
John Snowball at inquest: When I gave my evidence on the first meeting of the inquest I was in great distress of mind. There are certain statements I made then which I wish to correct. Between the 1st and the 5th of January I talked the matter over with my neighbours... I have had an accident, by which I lost my health, about thirty
years since, and my memory is not so good as it once was. I never told anyone that I didn't hear a thud on the floor. I have a brother-in-law named Robert Taylor, but I never told him or anyone else that I didn't hear a thud. I never heard such a thud before.
John Snowball is talking about the "fall" that he hears in the byre - though whether he was ever asked how he knew it was a "fall" and if it was such a loud "thud" why he wasn't concerned to find out what had caused it, is not recorded.
