THE BAD OLD TIMES.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 261, 21 October 1911, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE BAD OLD TIMES.

HIGHWAYA IEN ST<>RIES. A century or so ago the roads running through lipping Forest, near Ixmdou, wore favourite haunts of highwaymen. Tnero on occasion lurked the famous Diek Turpin and his associate, Tom King, who onco robbed live coaches m one day. 1 urpin’s memory is still preserved in the Forest by a little inn callee! ” Dick Turpin’s Gave," just below High Beech, and here some rusty weapons said to have belonged to the famous highwaymen, are to this day preserved. Turpin’s celebrated ride to York is, 1 believe, a fictirm. 'fhe highwayman who .!< med i!..- Imrec- was a num i toml NeviiiMiii, fiiiov. n as " Swill N.rk.” H■ ■ robbed ? n- Gad’s I tip iiCail. <mw si i-io snmn>er’s day ij -1. ■ 1 ■ ■ • 'l l I i’' '•L!It i , , ■ m i .to i. t ■ "it I» I"." bowling pre. c file . .inic cvi’iniig, eslah lishi’d a siivee.--i u! atiL: ji- ire- days lie lore railways wire dreamt oi numb. - <>; people who 1 req rented tlie racus at Newmarket went and returned by way of Epping Forest, and as they olteu earned a, good deal of money with them, some daring robberies were eoiuniittcd. In 1793 John Wiltshire was executed al Chelmsford for highway robbery n the Forest, where, with a couple ol companions, one night in April, ho Imit stopped two gentlemen—Mr. Howarth amt Mr. Alontolieu—-and robbed them of cash, bank-notes, and bills to the extent, of about two thousand guineas. i’ho victims were s sound asleep when the dims" stopped tha|i neither of ihem waked until tho rii/fians began to ritlo their pockets. A’ter receiving Irom them their watches and gold, they insisted upon their pocket-books, which demand not being instantly complied with, they forced open their waistcoats, with,in which they discovered and took both their pocket-bonks. Wiltshire was (■Might at Beaconsfield, and at his trial Sumo evidence was given showing the connection whiih existed between certain innkeepers and bigliw aymeii. Johnson, a retired bruiser, who kept a singular kind of sterling coffee-house, in a street near Lincoln’s Inn Fields, proi cd, with ajipi’i ent reluctance, that the prisoner was at Nowmarket on tho day ol the robbery, J.e having lost a considerable sum at hazard in his (Juhn-on’s) eompauy; and also that, oil that very day, he L’liL the prisoner his bay rat-tailed mare, on which, with his companion, Broughton, still at large. Wiltshire was supposed to havo committed the. robbery. 'J oe jmgilist hung bm k during all bfe examination, (li-jduj ;ng that kind of khift at every question which was better ealeiilated lor a bruising stage than a Limi t of Justire. The evidence ot this num (a>i a siartlnig light upon tho conned ion which w.rs known to exist betwee ntho I?'oper.s of certain low-class house- of refreshment, ami the I ighwaymcn whom they on occasions sheltered ami as i-od. Some of toe latter, however, relied upon themselve* alone, and, Irenii'ig don!.Io lives, would ostensibly follow some respectable »all ing iu the intervals of adv cut lire on the road.—" Snorting Dins and .Sporting Wavs.”