Patrick Pringle

That this is not written in a dull or dry way I learned as soon as I read the introduction, my favorite part of which I put in the quotations section. I'd have read it sooner if only I'd known that.

Chapter 8 includes the story about what happened to a highwayman who picked the wrong serving girl to rob. If you enjoy stories of the supposed weaker sex getting the better of their attackers, don't let yourself miss it.

Chapter 10 includes quotations from Jackson's Recantation, part of which reads like a manual for anyone who wants to become a highwayman. There are also quotations from the hints for figuring out if a person on horseback who is sharing the road with you is a highwayman and hints for innkeepers to guess which of their guests are highwaymen.

Among the tidbits I learned from this book:

1. Moll (or Mall) was short for 'Mary' before Moll Cutpurse (Mary Frith) was born, which was also before 'moll' came to mean the mistress of a professional thief/vagrant.

2. A 'gad' was a vagabond, hence 'Gad's Hill'.

3. A 'prig' used to be slang for a thief as a noun and slang for 'to steal' as a verb.

The 1951 edition must have been illustrated because at the end of chapter 19 the author wrote, 'But it is ungrateful of us to be so critical of Villette. His book is lavishly illustrated, and has provided us with many of our own plates.' Also, he mentions an illustration of Lady Caroline Petersham pleading for Maclain in chapter 23 and another called 'Highway Murder' in chapter 28. I'm sorry that this reprint edition didn't include them. This site has illustrations from the 'Newgate Calendar,' which includes some of the subjects of this book:
http://www.exclassics.com/newgate/ngillus.htm

Stephen Morse is the designer for the cover which includes a cropped copy of 'Mull (sic) Sack robbing the Oxford Wagon', which is ' 'an engraving from A General History of the Lives and Adventures of the Most Famous Highwaymen, Murderers, Street Robbers, &c (1734) by 'Captain Charles Johnson' ' ', according to this site: http://www.outlawsandhighwaymen.com/pictures/mullsack.htm… (mere)