''DARE-DEVIL SIMMS' 79 



a Cambridgeshire squire, and manager to a Lincoln's 

 Inn solicitor. He bad "borrowed" trust moneys 

 wherewith to satisfy some debts of honour ; and so 

 the hour of four o'clock in tlie afternoon of a 

 November day found him on the Heath, with a pistol 

 in his hand and his heart in his mouth, " holding up " 

 a coach. The booty was but a miserable handful of 

 silver ; but, being captured, he died for it, all the 

 same. Let us trust he did "the young gentlemen 

 who belong to Inns of Court" an injustice when, in 

 his dying speech and confession, he warned his hearers 

 against them as "the most wicked of any." 



Then there was Dare-devil Simms — "Gentleman 

 Harry," as his friends called him — a midshipman who 

 came up from deserting his ship in the West Country. 

 First borrowing a saddle and bridle, and then stealing 

 a horse, he commenced his career by robbing a post- 

 chaise and the Bristol Mail, and comino- to London, 

 soon became a noted fio;ure on this stao;e. One nio;ht 

 he relieved a Mr, Sleep of his purse. The despoiled 

 traveller bewailed his loss bitterly, but Harry com- 

 forted him with the assurance that he would have 

 been rol)bed in any case ; if not by himself, certainly 

 by one or other of the two who were waiting for 

 him down the road. "But if you meet them," said 

 he, " sing out ' Thomas ! ' and they will let you 

 pass." The unfortunate man went on his way calling 

 "Thomas!" to every one he met, and narrowly 

 escaped being severely handled by some gentlemen 

 who conceived themselves insulted. 



Presently Tyl)urn claimed Gentleman Harry also, 

 and a career which had been begun by transportation. 



