242 THE EXETER ROAD 



laniruao'e. But from that hour he had l)eeu a 

 stranger to peace of mind ; his crime was always 

 present to his imagination, and existence seemed at 

 times an insupportable burden. He begged his com- 

 panion to deliver him into the hands of Justice in 

 the next town they should reach. That was Salis- 

 bury. He was imprisoned . there, brought to trial, 

 found guilty, and hanged. 



Barham in his leo;end of the Dead Drummer has 

 taken many lil)erties with the facts of the case, both 

 as regards place and names, and makes the scene of 

 the murderer's terror identical with the site of the 

 crime, which he (for purely literary purposes) places 

 on Salisbury Plain, instead of the Great North Eoad, 

 between Buckden and Alconl)ur\-. 



XXXIV 



Three more inns were situated beside the road 

 between this point and Blandford in the old days. 

 Of them, two, the 'Thorney Down Inn,' and the 

 ' Thickthorn Inn' (romantic and shuddery names!), 

 have disappeared, while the remaining one, — the 

 ' Cashmoor Inn ' — formerly situated between the other 

 two, ekes out a much less important existence than of 

 old, as a wayside ' public' 



Then comes a villaoe — the first one since Coombe 

 Bissett was passed, fifteen miles behind, and so more 

 than usually welcome. A pretty village, too, Tarrant 

 Hintou by name, lying in a hollow, with its little 



