ii8 THE BATH ROAD 



the roof. This naturally annoyed the travellers, for 

 they thought it preposterous that a Jew should be 

 ashamed to ride on the outside. They thought he 

 should have been grateful for being allowed to ride on 

 any side in any way, since he was but a Jew. In 

 this connection Mr. Moritz takes occasion to observe 

 that the riding upon the roof of a coach is a curious 

 practice. Persons to whom it was not convenient to 

 pay fall price sat outside, without any seats, or even 

 a rail. By what means passengers thus fastened 

 themselves securely on the roofs of those vehicles he 

 knew not, but he constantly saw numbers seated 

 there, at their ease, and apparently with perfect 

 safety. 



On this occasion the outsiders, of whom there were 

 six, made such a noise and bustle when the insiders 

 alighted, as to almost frighten them, and I suspect 

 the ladies were rendered horribly nervous by the 

 only other man who rode inside the coach recounting 

 to them all kinds of stories about robbers and foot- 

 pads who had committed many crimes hereabouts. 

 However, as this entertaining companion insisted, the 

 English robbers were possessed of a superior honour 

 as compared with the French : the former robbed 

 only ; the latter both robbed and murdered, doubtless 

 on the principle of that classic proverb which assures 

 us that dead men tell no tales. 



" Notwithstanding this," says our traveller, " there 

 are in England another species of villains, who also 

 murder, and that oftentimes for the merest trifles, of 

 which they rob the person murdered. These are 

 called footpads, and are the lowest class of English 



