topped a lady's coach, in which there was a booty of four
hundred pounds; how he took only one hundred, and suffered the fair
owner to ransom the rest by dancing a coranto with him on the heath;
how his vivacious gallantry stole away the hearts of all women; how
his dexterity at sword and pistol made him a terror to all men; how, at
length, in the year 1670, he was seized when overcome by wine; how dames
of high rank visited him in prison, and with tears interceded for his
life; how the King would have granted a pardon, but for the interference
of Judge Morton, the terror of highwaymen, who threatened to resign his
office unless the law were carried into full effect; and how, after the
execution, the corpse lay in state with all the pomp of scutcheons, wax
lights, black hangings and mutes, till the same cruel Judge, who
had intercepted the mercy of the crown, sent officers to disturb the
obsequies. [154] In these anecdotes there is doubtless a large mixture
of fable; but they are not on that account unworthy of being recorded;
for it is both an authentic and an important fact that such tales,
whether false or true, were heard by our ancestors with eagerness and
faith.

All the various dangers by which the traveller was beset were greatly
increased by darkness. He was therefore commonly desirous of having
the shelter of a roof during the night; and such shelter it was not
difficult to obtain. From a very early period the inns of England
had been renowned. Our first great poet had described the excellent
accommodation which they afforded to the pilgrims of the fourteenth
century. Nine and twenty persons, with their horses, found room in the
wide chambers and stables of the Tabard in Southwark. The food was of
the best, and the wines such as drew the company on to drink largely.
Two hundred years later, under the reign of Elizabeth, William Harrison
gave a lively description of the plenty and comfort of the great
hostelries. The Continent of Europe, he said, could show nothing like
them. There were some in which two or three hundred people, with their
horses, could without difficulty be lodged and fed. The bedding, the
tapestry, above all, the abundance of clean and fine linen was matter
of wonder. Valuable plate was often set on the tables. Nay, there were
signs which had cost thirty or forty pounds. In the seventeenth century
England abounded with excellent inns of every rank. The traveller
sometimes, in a small village,