A rather good anecdote is told of an encounter between a poor tailor and one of these knights of the road. The tailor, on being overtaken by the highwayman, was at once called upon to stand and deliver, the salutation being accompanied by the presentation of two pistols at the pedestrian's head. "I'll do that with pleasure," was the meek reply; and forthwith the poor victim transferred to the outstretched hands of the robber all the money he possessed. This done, the tailor proceeded to ask a favour. "My friends would laugh at me," said he, "were I to go home and tell them I was robbed with as much patience as a lamb. Suppose you fire your two bull-dogs right through the crown of my hat; it will look something like a show of resistance." Taken with the fancy, the robber good-naturedly complied with the request; but hardly had the smoke from the weapons cleared away, when the tailor pulled out a rusty old horse pistol, and in turn politely requested the highwayman to shell out everything of value about him--his pistols not excepted. So the highwayman had the worst of the meeting on that occasion. The incident will perhaps help to dispel the sad reproach of the craft, that a tailor is but the ninth part of a man. It should not be forgotten that these perils of the road had their effect in preventing intercourse between different parts of the country. In such outlying districts as were blessed with postal communication a hundred years ago, the service was kept up by foot messengers, who often travelled long distances in the performance of their duty. Thus in 1799 a post-runner travelled from Inverness to Loch Carron--a distance across country, as the crow flies, of about fifty miles--making the journey once a week, for which he was paid 5s. Another messenger at the same period made the journey from Inverness to Dunvegan in Skye--a much greater distance--also once a week, and for this service he received 7s. 6d. The rate at which the messengers travelled seems not to have been very great, if we may judge from the performances of the post from Dumbarton to Inveraray. In the year 1805 the Surveyor of the district thus describes it: "I have sometimes observed these mails at leaving Dumbarton about three stones or 48 lbs. weight, and they are generally above two stones. During the course of last winter horses were obliged to be occasionally employed; and it is often the case that a strong highlander, with so great a weight upon him, cannot travel more than two miles an hour, which greatly retards the general correspondence of this extensive district of country."