MILITARY PATROLS. 279 



or upon chairs and sofas scattered about the room, 

 with the exception of Mr. Major, who, opening the 

 door, called his servant, and announced his intention 

 of riding home. 



" Let White-stockings be saddled," he said, "and 

 make haste." 



" Ay, ay, sir," replied the man. 



White-stockings was saddled, and Mr. Major took 

 his way along the avenue leading from the mansion 

 where he had been dining, much refreshed by the 

 " balmy breath of incense-breathing morn." He slack- 

 ened the pace of his horse as he reached the high-road. 

 Still feeling the effects of his share in the night's 

 debauch, he rode on leisurely with a loosened rein. His 

 horse was one which he had hunted, and it might be 

 said to have but two paces — a walk and a gallop. 



The racehorse of a hundred years ago, though not 

 equal in speed to the finer-bred animal of the modern 

 turf, had more bone and lasting qualities, and was up 

 to great weight ; in fact, the old " King's Plate" horse 

 of those days, though unfit to compete for short dis- 

 tances with the higher-bred nag of the present time, 

 made up in bone and endurance what he lacked in 

 blood and swiftness. 



The subject of conversation at the dinner-table the 

 night before amongst the magistrates present, had been 

 the recent robberies, and the advisability of a communi- 

 cation to the Secretary of State, praying that a troop 

 of dragoons might patrol the road thereabout, not an 

 uncommon practice in the neighbourhood of London 

 at that time.'" 



* From this employment of soldiers, the state of public safety on 

 the highwa)s may be well imagined. Several instances of their being 

 engaged to patrol the roads may be found incidentally in the sketch 

 of Turpin in the '^ Malefactors' Register" ; in " The Life of Gentleman 



