270 HIGH IV AYS AND HORSES. 



of mock reverence to his lordship, closed the coach- 

 door. A low whistle was heard, and he disappeared 

 through the gap in the hedge by which he had come. 



All this while the valiant Stevens had knelt, with 

 a piteous and alarmed aspect, in the road. His master 

 looked out, and, despite his vexation at the untoward 

 affair, could not keep his gravity at viewing the pale 

 and affriorhted countenance of his terrified menial. 



" By gad 1 " exclaimed he, " may I be struck comical 

 if you are not the drollest picture of a goose at his last 

 gasp I'd ever the luck to see ! Why, what in the name 

 of all that's miserable ails the man ? Get up with 

 you. 



Stevens rose from his genuflexions. 



The whistle Turpin had heard was the signal 

 of the approach of the horses and assistance. They 

 came, the obstruction was removed, and his lordship 

 once more proceeded on his journey. We need not 

 say the order was presented and duly honoured. 



Some little way back, I have spoken of the 

 apparatus that was made use of to pacify scolding 

 wives, and in fact all women of the lower class who, 

 when they lost their tempers, allowed their tongues to 

 get the better of their discretion. Dick Turpin's 

 biographer gives an animated description of the way in 

 which this punishment was inflicted. He says : 



" A day or two after their return to town, Turpin and 

 his friend Tom King were sauntering down Margaret 

 Lane, with the intention of idling an hour at Oliver's 

 to learn the news of the day, when, as they were about 

 to turn into Palace Yard, they were passed by a 

 motley rabble of ragged boys, unwashed coster- 

 mongers, and slipshod women, shouting most voci- 

 ferously, thrusting and elbowing towards a knot of 



