256 THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



HORSE-STEALING ANECDOTES. 



HORSE stealing is a crime of considerable antiquity 

 in England, where it has always been regarded as 

 deserving very severe punishment. 



Holinshed mentions in his ' Chronicles ' that 

 during the reign of Queen Elizabeth a noted horse- 

 stealer named Ditch was apprehended, charged upon 

 nineteen indictments, eighteen of which he confessed 

 to. It appears that between the time of his appre- 

 hension and the sessions c he appeached many of 

 stealing horses, whereof many of them were taken 

 up, and ten of them condemned and hung at Smith- 

 field, on horse-market day, 5 a day specially selected, 

 we presume, in order that the warning and example 

 to such-like evil-doers should be the more notorious 

 and efficacious amongst the fraternity. This man 

 Ditch was evidently possessed of the full cunning 

 peculiar to his tribe, as it is said he practised the 

 dodge of acting also the part of common informer, 

 by helping many to recover their stolen horses, 

 charging as a fee ten shillings each, whereby, as 



