LOMBARD STREET 15 



the Treasury, did not always prove effectual ; indeed, 

 it was not on every ride that jDrotection could be 

 given. As, for example : 



' General Post Office, 



' 16th July, 1827. 



'WHEKEAS on the Niglit of Thursday the 12th instant, 

 about a Quarter past Ten o'clock, the Driver with the Mail was 

 feloniously^ stopped by two Men on the King's Highway, between 

 Leatherhead and Dorking, opposite Givon's Grove, when the 

 Men fired two Pistols at the Driver, and severely wounded him. 



' A Eamrod was found near the spot, and is supposed to have 

 dropped from the Pistol of one of the Offenders. 



' If either of the Persons concerned in the said Felonious 

 Attack, or any Person knowing thereof, will surrender himself, 

 and make discovery whereby the other Offender or Offenders 

 ma^' be apprehended and brought to justice, such Discoverer 

 will be entitled to One Hundred Guineas Eeward, and will also 

 receive HIS MAJESTY'S most gracious PAKDON.' 



o» 



But the most exciting, because the most daring 

 robbery of all w^as one that took place much earlier 

 — I think in 1812 — of the down night mail from 

 Lombard Street for Ipswich. The bags were crammed 

 with bankers' parcels, and the thieves found a rich 

 booty in the notes of the private banks at Hadleigh, 

 Manningtree, Ipswich, and Woodbridge. A reward of 

 no less than one thousand pounds was offered, and 

 the theft was long a stock story in the Post-Office. 



I cannot claim that it was in a mail-coach, but 

 certainly in a coach of some' sort, that a lady j^as- 

 senger strongly advised a gentleman — a stranger, 

 also riding inside — to put, for security against robbers, 

 all the money he had, amounting to ten guineas, 



