328 STAGE-COACH AND MAIL' IN DAYS OF YORE 



What, exactly, was Stonegate, or Stangate, 

 Hole ? It was the deep and solitary hollow that 

 then existed at the foot of the northward slope 

 of Alconbury Hill, known now as Stangate Hill, 

 The name derived from this road being a j)art of 

 the old E/oman "Ermine Street," formerly a stone- 

 paved way, and the "Hole" was formed l)y a rise 

 that immediately succeeded the descent. Quite 

 shut in by dense woods, it was an ideal sjiot for 

 highway robbery. When, in the later coaching 

 era, the road was lowered through the crest of 

 the hill, and the earth was used to raise it in the 

 hollow, Stonegate Hole disappeared. Bones were 

 found during the j^i'ogi'ess of the w^orks, suj3j)osed 

 relics of unfortunate travellers who had met their 

 death at the hands of the highwaymen. A more 

 or less true storv was Ions; told of an ostler of the 

 " Wheatsheaf," the inn that once stood on the hill- 

 top. He, it seems, used to help in putting in the 

 coach-horses Avhen the teams were changed, and 

 would then take a short cut across the fields, and 

 be ready for the coach when it came down tlie 

 road. The coachman, guard, and jDassengers, who 

 did not knoAV that the shining pistol-barrel he 

 levelled at them was really a tin candlestick, were 

 duly impressed by it, and yielded their valual)les 

 accordinii^lv. 



A tale used to be told of one of the old 

 "London riders," or "l)agmen," who lay at the 

 "Wheatsheaf" ovenn'glit and s(»t forth the next 

 morning. His saddle-ljags were full, and so 

 weighted with samples of his wares that he could 



