''ARLINGTON OF HAKLINGTON'' 91 



but the 'eralds' College (as it surely should have been 

 called) made out his patent of nobility without the 

 " H," and so " Arlington " he had to become. Arling- 

 ton Street, Piccadilly, remains to this day, and the 

 Dukes of Grafton, in whose numerous titles this is 

 merged, are still Barons " Arlington of Harlington, 

 in Middlesex." 



After which we will hasten on, passing Sipson (a 

 corruption of " Shepiston ") Greeu. Here we come 

 upon the trail of messieurs the footpads again, for the 

 road between this inn and the humbler " Old Magpies," 

 a few hundred yards further on, is sad with the story 

 of highway murder. 



XV 



'The times of the highwaymen are, fortunately for 

 the wayfarer, if unhappily for romance, long since past, 

 and many of the once-notorious haunts of Sixteen- 

 string Jack, Claude du Vail, Dick Turpin, and their 

 less-fiimed companions have disappeared before the 

 ravages of time and the much more destructive on- 

 slaughts of the builder. A hundred years ago it would 

 have been difficult to name a lonely suburban inn 

 that was not more or less favoured and frequented by 

 the " Knights of the Eoad." Nowadays the remaining 

 examples are, for those interested in tlie old story of 

 the roads, all too few. 



Perhaps this queer little roadside inn, the " Old 

 Magpies," is the most romantic-looking among those 

 that are left. For one thing, it possesses a thick and 



