But the horse has always served man as an individual, not mankind in general, and it did not 

 concern him whether he kept the Queen's Peace or helped to make hazardous the King's 

 Highway. One of the most renowned horses in history was Black Bess, reputed to have 

 carried Dick Turpin on his legendary ride to York. 



Forerunners of the Mounted Police were the Bow Street 'Horse Patroles', which were 

 composed of ex-Dragoons who wore a uniform of a leathern hat, blue coat with yellow 

 buttons, blue trousers, and the same scarlet waistcoat that the Bow Street Runners wore. 

 They were armed to the teeth with cutlasses, pistols and truncheons, and were splendidly 

 mounted; as indeed they had to be in dealing with such desperadoes as 'Sixteen-String' Jack 

 Rann, a highwayman who was eventually dragged off to gaol wearing 'darbies' weighing 

 upwards of 42 lbs. The roads between Hounslow and Blackheath were a terror for the 

 traveller and the Horse Patroles came on beat between five and seven o'clock every evening 

 at a distance of five miles from London, and patrolled the roads until midnight, for which 

 their weekly wage was twenty-eight shillings. 



