176 



KAIILY MODES OF CONVEYANCE. 



PART III. 



into great consternation near Topcliffe, in Yorkshire, on 

 missing them, believing that they had been al >stracted 

 by some designing rogues at the inn where lie had last 

 slept. 1 No wonder that, before setting out on a journey 

 in those days, men were accustomed to make their wills. 



When Mrs. Calderwood, of Coltness, travelled from 

 Edinburgh to London in 1756, she relates in her Diary 

 that she travelled in her own postchaise, attended by 

 John Eattray, her stout serving man, on horseback, with 

 pistols at his holsters and a good broad sword by his 

 side. The lady had also with her in the carriage a 

 case of pistols, for use upon an emergency. Eobberies 

 were then of frequent occurrence in the neighbourhood 

 of Bawtry, in Yorkshire, and one day a suspicious-looking 

 character, whom they took to be a highwayman, made 

 his appearance ; but " John Eattray, talking about 

 powder and ball to the postboy, and showing his whanger, 

 the fellow made off." Mrs. Calderwood started from 

 Edinburgh on the 3rd of June, when the roads were dry 

 and the weather was fine, and she reached London on 

 the evening of the 10th, which was considered a rapid 

 journey in those days. 



The danger, however, from footpads and highwaymen 

 was not greatest in remote country places, but in and 

 about the metropolis itself. The proprietors of Bell size 

 House and gardens, in the Hampstead-road, then one of 

 the principal places of amusement, had the way to 

 London patrolled during the season by twelve " lusty 

 fellows ;" and Sadler's Wells, Yauxhall, and Ranelagh 



1 " It is as common a custom, as a 

 cunning politic in thieves, to place 

 chamberlains in such great inns where 

 cloathiers and graziers do lye ; and by 

 their large bribes to infect others, who 

 were not of their own preferring ; 

 who noting your purses when you 

 draw them, they'l gripe your cloak- 

 bags, and feel the weight, and so in- 

 form the master thieves of what they 

 think, and not those alone, but the 



Host himself is oft as base as they, if 

 it be left in charge with them* all 

 night; he to his roaring guests either 

 gives item, or shews the purse itself, 

 who spend liberally, in hope of a 

 speedie recruit." See 'A Brief yet 

 Notable Discovery of Housebreakers, 1 

 &c., 1659. See also 'Street II..I.- 

 beries Considered ; a Warning for 

 Housekeepers,' 1676; 'Hanging not 

 Punishment Enough,' 1701, &c. 



