222 THE EXETER ROAD 



the performances of his mare were worthy of her 

 distinguished ancestry. At Hartley Eow he called 

 for a bottle of wine, drank a glass himself, and 

 pouring the remainder over a large toast, gave it to 

 his steed, repeating it at Whitchurch and Eversley. 



Two months' retirement at Poulshot seemed 

 advisable after this, but during the latter part of the 

 summer and through the autumn he was very busy, 

 his operations extending as far as Bath and Bristol. 

 To give an account of his many robberies would 

 require a long and detailed biography. He did not 

 always meet with travellers willing to resign their 

 purses without a struggle, and on those occasions he 

 o-enerally came off second best ; as in the case of 

 the butcher whom he met upon the Plain. Although 

 Boulter held a pistol at the heads of travellers, he 

 never really meant to use it, and it was his boast, at 

 his last hour, that he had never taken life. Perhaps 

 the butcher knew this, for when our friend presented 

 his firearm at his head, and asked him to turn his 

 pockets out, he said, ' I don't get my money so easily 

 as to part with it in that foolish manner. If you rob 

 me, I must go upon the highway myself before I 

 durst go home, and that I'd rather not do.' 



What was a good young highwayman, with 

 conscientious scruples about shedding blood, to do 

 under those circumstances ? It was an undignified 

 situation, but he retreated from it as best he could, 

 and with the words : ' Good-night, and remember 

 that Boulter is your friend,' disappeared. 



In 1777 he took a journey up to York, and was 

 laid by the heels there, escaping the hangman by 



