28o HIGHWAYS AND HORSES. 



Whilst Mr. Major was thus musing, the regular 

 sound of a horse at full speed rose on his ear ; the 

 rider was evidently going the same road, namely, that 

 towards London. 



" Here's company, at any rate," said he ; " and pretty 

 well mounted, if I may guess from the pace." 



The horseman came up, and courteous salutations 

 were exchanged. 



" Fine morning, sir," observed Turpin, for it was 

 he ; " going far on this road ? " 



" Some four miles ; nearly to Plaistow," replied 

 Mr. Major. " Early out this morning. That's a 

 pretty beast of yours." 



Turpin replied merely by patting his horse's neck, 

 and the conversation turned on indifferent topics. 



Nothing was further from Dick's mind than doing 

 what he termed " business" with the gentleman whom 

 he thus met at the very entrance of the clump of houses 

 at Trap's Hill. They rode on amicably, and in reply to 

 an inquiry on the part of Mr. Major, Dick informed him 

 that his name was Cutler; that he resided at Hoddes- 

 don, in Hertfordshire, but having occasion to call on a 

 relation at Epping on his way to town on urgent 

 business, he had slept there on account of the 

 unsafeness of the roads, and had started with the 

 morning's dawn. The frank manner of Dick, and his 

 manly bearing, prejudiced Mr. Major in his favour ; 

 yet being — like most sporting men — not a little given 

 to braggadocio, he could not forbear laughing at 

 Turpin's apprehensions. 



"I never had the luck," said he, "to meet any 

 of these hre-eating blades ; yet as the gentry here- 



Harry" (who was executed at Tyburn, 1754), London, 8vo, 1754; in 

 The London Magazine, and in several contemporaneous tracts. 



