52 THE COACHING AGE. 



somewhat similar raid, it may be remembered, was 

 carried on at a more recent period against turnpikes in 

 South Wales. There, the individual from whom the 

 threats of vengeance were supposed to emanate passed 

 under the nom de guerre^ of ' Eebecca ;' and the 

 onslaught was on ' pikes,' which, in the event of 

 their not being spontaneously removed, would, it was 

 stated, be forcibly demolished, a threat which was in 

 many instances carried out in what were called 

 the ' Rebecca riots.' How many ' pikes ' have since 

 been removed by the peaceable means of Acts of 

 Parliament, is perhaps best known to those deeply 

 interested in the subject, from having been creditors 

 on the different turnpike trusts and holders of turn- 

 pike bonds, at one time considered almost as safe an 

 investment as Consols or Exchequer Bills. 



I remember to have seen somewhere, and regret 

 much I have not got it, a capital description of a toll- 

 house for sale when the turnpike was done away with. 

 Although it was, in fact, only a burlesque on what 

 would have been the auctioneer's actual particulars of 

 sale, and, to say the least of it, very flowery and 

 highly coloured, still it could not be characterized 

 as actually fallacious. It was very cleverly done ; 

 and no one reading it would have supposed it actually 

 referred to a turnpike-house. All I can recollect of it 

 is that it described a substantially built brick cottage 



