172 THE COACHING ERA 



conquerable aversion to rabbits. The highwayman in a 

 fury shouted out: "But you must and shall buy my 

 rabbit"; and buy they did at a most uncommonly high 

 price. 



The fear the highwayman inspired was extraordinary, 

 for, though coaches might be filled with passengers 

 armed to the teeth, it was exceedingly rare for a high- 

 wayman to meet with any resistance. At the word of 

 command travellers instantly put down their blunder- 

 buss and sought wildly for their purses. Many highway- 

 men, knowing this, did not trouble to load their pistols, 

 relying on their telling appearance, and their own black 

 masks to carry the matter through successfully. One 

 robber boasted that he never used weapons, and his 

 pistol was, in fa6l, nothing but a pewter candlestick, 

 which could be pointed with gratifying success on a dark 

 night. 



A Huntingdon horse-keeper robbed the Peterborough 

 coach with the same deadly instrument, but his con- 

 fidence in it was not fulfilled, for when he attempted the 

 same high-handed proceeding with the Stamford Fly 

 the guard had the presence of mind to fire off his 

 blunderbuss. The wounded highwayman horse-keeper 

 was carried into Huntingdon to the astonishment of 

 the inhabitants, who had known him only as a creditable 

 and law abiding citizen. 



Anthony Wood, too, in his diary tells how in 1692 

 a stage waggon was robbed near Gerrard's Cross, by a 

 gang of highwaymen, "of whom Savage, sometime an 

 Oxford mercer, was one." The Oxford Journal for 1755 



