ROBBERY AND ADVENTURE 145 



highway-robbery of postboys, stage-coaches, post- 

 chaises, and all sorts and conditions of wayfarers 

 became commonplaces of travel. Dick Turpin's 

 name has acqnired an nndue prominence, on 

 account of Harrison Ainsworth elevating him 

 upon a pedestal, as the hero of a romance, but 

 his was really neither a prominent nor an heroic 

 figure. Innumerable other j^ractitioners surpassed 

 him. Claude Du Vail, who robbed and danced 

 on Hounslow Heath ; Abershaw, the terror of 

 the Surrey Commons ; Captain Hind, soldier 

 and gentleman, warring with authority ; Boulter, 

 whose depredations Avere conducted all over the 

 kingdom; the "Golden Earmer " on the Exeter 

 Road, outside Bagshot : all these and very 

 many more were infinitely superior to Turpin, 

 and, as they phrased it, " spoke to " the coaches 

 with great success during their brief but crowded 

 career. Nowadays, we hear much of overcrowded 

 professions ; but those of the Army, the Church, 

 and the Law are by no means so crowded as 

 were the ranks of the liberal profession of high- 

 way rol)bery in the brave nights of crape mask 

 and horse-pistols at the cross-roads on the blasted 

 heaths which then eucomjiassed the Metropolis ; 

 lonesome places of dreadful possil)ilities, which 

 could not have been more conveniently placed 

 for the purpose of these night-haAvks had they 

 been expressly designed for them. 



Travellers, Avho looked upon being robbed once 

 upon a journey as the inevitable thing, very 

 soon discovered this overcrowded state of affairs, 

 VOIv. n, 10 



