DANGKRS OF TRAVELLING. 29 



they were connived at by many inn-keepers ; 

 so much so, indeed, that proclamations were 

 issued warning all innkeepers that the eye of 

 the Government was upon them. Their criminal 

 connivance, it was affirmed, enabled banditti 

 to infest the roads with impunity. That those 

 suspicions were not without foundation is proved 

 by the dying speeches of some penitent robbers 

 of that age, who appear to have received from 

 from the innkeepers services much resembling 

 those which Farquhar's ' Boniface' rendered to 

 ' Gibbet.' " 



In the " Domestic Intelligence " I read that 

 " several passengers, both men and women, to 

 the number of fifteen, going in three or four 

 coaches towards Bath and Bristol, were set 

 upon by some highwaymen (supposed to be 

 soldiers) well armed, about Stoke Church, in 

 Oxfordshire (a very desolate part at that time), 

 who robbed them all of very considerable 

 value." 



Another adventure may not prove uninter- 

 esting. Two travellers were journeying together 

 over a dreary common, when one remarked to 

 the other that he trusted they should not fall 

 in with any highwaymen, as he had one hun- 

 dred pounds secreted in his boot. They had 



