THE ''FLYING HIGHWAYMAN ' iii 



XIX 



It will not surprise those who are acquainted with 

 the history of Bath, and the crow^ds of rich travellers 

 who travelled thither, to learn that Hounslow Heath 

 had not lono- been left behind before another hiojh- 

 wayman's territory was entered upon. This stretched 

 rouo-hly from Salt Hill, on the east, to Maidenhead 

 Thicket, on the w^est. It would, of course, have been 

 ill o;leaning after the harvest had been reaj^ed by the 

 pick of the profession on the Heath, and, as a matter 

 of fact, the o;ang;s who infested Maidenhead Thicket 

 and Salt Hill confined their attention to travellers 

 returning from Bath. Hawkes was the chief of them, 

 and his was a name of dread. 



Hawkes, the "Flying Highwayman," who obtained 

 that eminently descriptive name from the rapidity 

 with which lie moved from place to place, levying 

 tribute from the frecjuenters of the Bath Road, was a 

 darkly prominent figure in the days of George the 

 Third. His name perhaps is not so well known as 

 that of the more than half-mythical Dick Turpin, but 

 it deserves especial mention from the circumstance of 

 his keeping the whole country side between Hounslow 

 and Windsor in terror for some years, and from the 

 cleverness of the disguises he assumed. Disguised 

 now as an officer, or a farmer ; or again, as a Quaker, 

 he despoiled the King's liege subjects very effectively. 

 His most notable exploit was enacted at Salt Hill. 



A vapouring fellow, apparently from the sister 

 island, who, according to his own account of his 



