74 THE BATH ROAD 



it was in the days of road-travel, because it com- 

 manded the great roads to the West. The Bath 

 and Exeter Roads, which were one from Hyde Park 

 Corner as far as this town, branched at its western 

 end, and it was also on the route to Windsor. It 

 shoukl thus have become an important station on the 

 Great Western Railway, and might have been, had 

 not other interests prev^ailed. It was the original 

 intention of the Great Western directors, when the 

 line was planned by Brunei in 1833, to keep close to 

 the old high-road to Bath ; but landed interests, both 

 private and corporate, brought nbout numerous de- 

 viations, and so Hounslow was left to its fate, and the 

 Great Western main line passes through Southall, two 

 and a half miles distant, instead. 



XII 



We will now press on to the Heath, for our friends 

 the highwaymen are anxiously awaiting us. Right 

 away from the seventeenth century this spot bore a 

 bad repute, when one of the most daring exploits was 

 performed on its gloomy expanse. This was no less a 

 feat than the plundering of that warlike general, Fair- 

 fax, by Moll Cutpurse. The most capable soldier of 

 the age robbed by a woman highwayman, if you will be 

 pleased to excuse the Irishry of the expression ! But, 

 indeed, the Roaring Girl, as her contemporaries called 

 her, was the best man among the whole of that daring 

 crew, and to her courage, her cunning, and her ready 

 wit she owed the successful career that was hers. 



