i6o RECORDS OF OLD TIMES 



been capitally convicted, and the whole party got 

 away. There were some extraordinary cases which 

 I cannot forbear mentioning, as at Durham there 

 were two cases oi pressing to death in 1576 and in 

 1597 ; and so late as the year 1770, at the Old 

 Bailey, a prisoner charged with murder refused to 

 plead, when he was shown the apparatus for pressing 

 to death, whereupon he pleaded ' not guilty,' was 

 tried, convicted, and hanged. The object of his 

 refusal was to prevent the forfeiture of his estate 

 for the benefit of his heir. 



There was a remarkable occurrence in 

 December 1772. A man named Richard Holt 

 was murdered at Bierton, near Aylesbury, at night, 

 in his bedchamber, by Corbet, a rat-catcher from 

 Tring. He was tried at the Bucks assizes, and 

 condemned to be hung and gibbeted at Bierton. 

 Great crowds went to the execution. It came out 

 in the evidence that the murderer entered the house 

 by the chimney, and left in the same manner. 

 Unknown to him, his dog had followed him to the 

 house, and in the morning he was sitting outside, 

 and could not be driven away ; the dog was known 

 to belong to Corbet, and this led to his conviction. 

 In 1786 a man was hung at Newgate for robbing 

 another man of his hat, which had a handkerchief 

 in it. This year several were hung at Newgate — 

 G. Woodward, for stealing Lord George Cavendish's 

 horses ; W. Smith, for coining a halfpenny — benefit 

 of clergy not being allowed ; and Phoebe Harrison, 

 for coining shillings. She was hung, and after 



