ROBBER Y BY WHOLESALE 2 2 1 



should not advance a single step until lie had 

 delivered his money. In a few minutes his trembling 

 victim had handed over, in bank-notes and cash, 

 nearly £90. His watch, which he seemed to set a 

 value upon for its anticjuity, together with some bills 

 of exchange, Boulter returned, and, wishing him 

 good-day, and observing that he should return to 

 London, continued, instead, his journey to Exeter. 

 Altogether, in this trip, he secured a booty of £500, 

 in money and valuables, and spent the winter and 

 these ill-gotten gains among his relatives on Salisbury 

 Plain. 



He opened his next campaign in May 1776, having 

 first provided himself with a splendid mare named 

 ' Black Bess,' which he stole from Mr. Peter Delme's 

 stables at Erie Stoke. This horse, scarce inferior to 

 Turpin's mare of the same name, is indeed supposed 

 to have been a descendant of hers. Startino- from 

 Poulshot, he rode to Staines, reaching that place on 

 the second nioht out. Eisino; at four o'clock the 

 next morning, he was on the road, in wait for the 

 Western coaches ; but he was a prudent man, and at 

 the sight of blunderbusses on their roofs, he concluded 

 that to attack them would be a tempting of Provi- 

 dence. Accordingly, he confined his attentions to the 

 diligences and the post-chaises, and was so active that 

 day that he visited Maidenhead, Hurley, Wokingham, 

 Hartley Eow, Whitchurch, and Eversley, reaching 

 Poulshot again the same night with nearly £200, 

 and with the ' Hue and Cry ' of five counties at his 

 heels. His exploits on this occasion would not shame 

 the first masters of the art of highway robbery, and 



