?

"_James_. John says, Sir, they'd have been here last night, but that
the old wheezy-belly horse tired, and the two fore-wheels came crash
down at once in Waggon-rut Lane. Sir, they were cruelly loaden, as I
understand: my lady herself, he says, laid on four mail trunks,
besides the great deal-box, which fat Tom sat upon behind.

"_U. Richard_. So!

"_James_. Then, within the coach there was Sir Francis, my lady, the
great fat lap-dog, Squire Humphrey, Miss Betty, my lady's maid, Mrs.
Handy, and Doll Tripe the cook; but she puked with sitting backwards,
so they mounted her into the coach-box.

"_U. Richard_. Very well.

"_James_. Then, Sir, for fear of a famine before they should get to
the baiting-place, there was such baskets of plum-cake, Dutch
gingerbread, Cheshire cheese, Naples biscuits, maccaroons, neats'
tongues and cold boiled beef; and in case of sickness, such bottles
of usquebaugh, black-cherry brandy, cinnamon-water, sack, tent, and
strong beer, as made the old coach crack again.

"_U. Richard_. Well said.

"_James_. And for defence of this good cheer and my lady's little
pearl necklace, there was the family basket-hilt sword, the great
Turkish scimitar, the old blunderbuss, a good bag of bullets, and a
great horn of gunpowder.

"_U. Richard_. Admirable!

"_James_. Then for bandboxes, they were so bepiled up--to Sir
Francis's nose, that he could only peep out at a chance hole with one
eye, as if he were viewing the country through a perspective-glass."

The "blunderbuss, Turkish scimitar, and basket-hilt sword," in the
foregoing extract from Vanbrugh, point to one of the constant perils of
the road--the highwaymen. Lady Wronghead was lucky in bringing her
"little pearl necklace" safe to London. Turpin's scouts, a few years
later, would have obtained more accurate information of the rich
moveables packed in the squire's coach. But as yet Turpin and Bradshaw
were not. The great road from York to London however lay always under an
evil reputation. It was by this line that Jeannie Deans walked to
London, and verified the remark of her sagacious host, the Boniface of
Beverley, that the road would be clear of thieves when Groby Pool was
thatched with pancakes--and not till then. The example of Robin Hood
was, for centuries after his death, zealously followed by the more
adventurous