WATCHMEN AND BOW STREET RUNNERS. 253 



those days was the fear of highwaymen. Highway- 

 men were an institution specially connected with stage- 

 coaches, post-chaises, and travelling carriages ; they 

 were in their greatest glory when George III. occupied 

 the throne. 



In London there were no police, only the watch- 

 men, sometimes called " Charlies," and the Bow Street 

 runners. The watchmen were armed with long poles, 

 and carried a Ian thorn ; they used to patrol the streets 

 crying the hour every time the clock struck, also pro- 

 claiming the condition of the weather, if good or bad. 

 They also used to wake those people who were going 

 upon a journey. These old watchmen (for they were 

 generally old men) used to be much ill-treated by the 

 youngsters of that period when they came rioting from 

 the taverns and coffee-houses where they had spent 

 the night. The Bow Street runners were thief-takers,, 

 and were not instrumental in the prevention or even 

 the detection of crime, but merely ran the criminal in 

 after the crime was committed. When they had in- 

 formation of a house to be broken open or a mail to 

 be robbed, they never interfered until the act had 

 been perpetrated. When they were sure of a capital 

 conviction, they would take their man and obtain ^40 

 for blood money. The number of executions in those 

 days was something terrible. To understand this, it 

 must be remembered how many offences were awarded 

 capital punishment. Townsend, the celebrated Bow 

 Street runner, in 1783 said that "when Serjeant Adair 

 was Recorder of London, there were forty persons 

 hung at two executions." 



The old novelists give us a very good idea of the 

 condition of affairs in those days. Fielding in par- 

 ticular. The prisons were in a terrible state ; there 



