their condition.

But not only were the roads bad, but they were unsafe. Travellers could
hardly trust themselves to go about unarmed, and even the mail-coaches,
in which (besides the driver and guard) some passengers generally
journeyed, had to carry weapons of defence placed in the hands of the
guard. Many instances of highway robbery by highwaymen who made a
profession of robbery might be given; but one or two cases may repay
their perusal. On the 4th March 1793 the Under-Sheriff of Northampton
was robbed at eight o'clock in the evening near Holloway turnpike by two
highwaymen, who carried off a trunk containing the Sheriff's commission
for opening the assizes at Northampton.

In the Autobiography of Mary Hewitt the following encounter is recorded,
referring to the period between 1758-96: "Catherine (Martin), wife of a
purser in the navy, and conspicuous for her beauty and impulsive,
violent temper, having quarrelled with her excellent sister, Dorothea
Fryer, at whose house in Staffordshire she was staying, suddenly set off
to London on a visit to her great-uncle, the Rev. John Plymley, prebend
of the Collegiate Church at Wolverhampton, and Chaplain of Morden
College, Blackheath. She journeyed by the ordinary conveyance, the
Gee-Ho, a large stage-waggon drawn by a team of six horses, and which,
driven merely by day, took a week from Wolverhampton to the Cock and
Bell, Smithfield.

"Arrived in London, Catherine proceeded on foot to Blackheath. There,
night having come on, and losing her way, she was suddenly accosted by a
horseman with, 'Now, my pretty girl, where are you going?' Pleased by
his gallant address, she begged him to direct her to Morden College. He
assured her that she was fortunate in having met with him instead of one
of his company, and inducing her to mount before him, rode across the
heath to the pile of buildings which had been erected by Sir Christopher
Wren for decayed merchants, the recipients of Sir John Morden's bounty.
Assisting her to alight, he rang the bell, then remounted his steed and
galloped away, but not before the alarmed official, who had answered
the summons, had exclaimed, 'Heavens! Dick Turpin on Black Bess!' My
mother always said 'Dick Turpin.' Another version in the family runs
'Captain Smith.'"

The _Annual Register_ of the 3d October 1792 records the following case
of highway robbery:--

"The daily messenger, despatched from the Secretary of State's office
with letters