“Thus some months passed on in a round of wickedness which not all the counsel in the universe could restrain. My poor grandmother with tears in her eyes entreated me to leave off my wicked course and to follow her instructions. But I little regarded her advice, and still pursued my own schemes. “There was hardly a place round London famed for wickedness, but I was there. Tottenham Court Fair, when it came, I rejoiced at, for there I lived riotously, and there too I became a proficient in the dexterous art of picking pockets, by which I gained for some time pretty handsomely. But at length that business grew dead, and, as I lived at a large rate, money was wanting. Accordingly, having mustered up a sufficient quantity of cash, I purchased a pair of pistols and a horse, and set out; and in Epping Forest, near Woodford, I stopped two gentlemen in a chaise and pair, from whom I took only a little silver, and proceeded on to Newmarket, where I arrived that night, and early next morning set out again, stopped the Norwich coach, and took from the passengers thirty guineas, a gold watch, and a diamond ring, and then rode away; and about three hours after, near Littlebury, met the Cambridge coach, from the passengers of which I took about five pounds, and came on for London. I now began to frequent a noted gaming-house in Covent Garden, where, for several nights, I had a prodigious run of luck, and won a considerable sum of money. I bought myself a silver hilted sword, had several new suits of clothes made, particularly one suit of black velvet, and appeared at all my usual haunts with surprising eclat. It was at this time I gained the name of ‘Gentleman Harry,’ for though I was before only called plain Harry, yet, on this my sudden grand appearance, I was christened ‘Gentleman Harry,’ which name I retained forever. But fortune not continuing her favors to me at the gaming-table, I was once more reduced, and obliged to take up again my old trade. Hitherto, what business I had done was by myself; but being out one day with a companion of mine, we agreed to attack the first person we met with powder and shot. We saw nothing for some days that we either cared or dared to attack, till we came to a place called Eversley Bank, where we met a collector of Shrewsbury: we ordered him to stand and deliver, and took from him near three hundred pounds. For this robbery two men were taken up a short time after, tried at the assizes, capitally convicted, and executed: and I cannot but own, that, notwithstanding my hardened villany, so often as I remembered it, I felt a good deal of sorrow at being the cause of shedding innocent blood, which I always avoided and abhorred.