78 THE BATH ROAD 



lined with gibbets on which the carcases of male- 

 factors huno; in irons, blackenino; in the sun." Du 

 Vail had a successor in Twysden, Bishop of Raphoe, 

 collecting tithes in rather a promiscuous way, by 

 turnina; hio-hwavman in 1752. His career was a 

 short one, for one of the first travellers he bade 

 " Stand 1 " on the Heath shot him through the body, 

 from which he died a few days hiter, at the house 

 of a friend, from "inflammation of the bowels," as the 

 contemporary report, jealous for the reputation of the 

 dignified clergy, put it. 



Shall I weary you by recounting more of these 

 highway crimes ? There was Dr. Shelton, a surgeon, 

 who flourished in the early thirties of last century, 

 and, deserting lancet and scalpel, took to the road 

 and that not more lethal weapon, the horse-pistol ; 

 though, to be sure, it was more for show than use, 

 for not Du \i\S\. himself could have been more 

 courteous. 



That the poet who wrote of Bagshot Heath as a 

 place " where ruined gamblers oft repay their loss " 

 might with perfect propriety have substitute*! 

 •' Hounslovv " will be readily seen when we mention 

 Parsons, nearly contemporary with Shelton, who 

 robbed at Hounslow that he might gamble in London. 

 Parsons w^as the son of a " Bart, of the B.K,," as the 

 Tichborne Claimant would have phrased it ; an Eton 

 boy, at one time an ofiicer both in the Army and 

 Navv, and the husband of a beautiful heiress. He 

 made an edifying end at Tyburn. 



Then there was Barkvvith, a mere novice, whose 

 first sally led to a like exit. He was the son of 



