Mornings at Bow Street: A Selection of the Most Humorous and Entertaining Reports which Have Appeared in the 'Morning Herald'Wight, J. (John)
General
Mornings at Bow Street: A Selection of the Most Humorous and Entertaining Reports which Have Appeared in the 'Morning Herald'
Wight, J. (John)
Crime -- England -- London
"A youth condemn'd his father's soul to cross,
Who _picks a pocket_ when he should _engross_!"
--was charged with having taken unto himself property to which he had no
right or title whatever--to wit, a _barrister's wig_.
It appeared by the evidence, that Bob Jenkinson--hopeful Bob, his friends
call him; was prowling about Temple Bar in the dead of the night, seeking
something for his "pickers and stealers" to do. Presently he was aware of
a solitary gentleman approaching the Bar from the city side; and instantly
concealed himself in the shade of the archway, he determined to try his
luck upon him. The gentleman, so approaching, was a barrister, residing in
the Pump-court of the Temple; and he came slowly, and soberly on--wrapped
(probably) in professional meditations, little thinking danger was so near
him. As he passed through the archway, Bob Jenkinson popp'd from his
hiding-place, crept softly after him on tip-toe, slided his hand smoothly
into his right-hand coat-pocket, and drew forth--a _wig_! Like _Filch_ in
the opera--he dipp'd for a _fogle_ and prigg'd a _wig_! It was not a
forensic wig, but a scratch wig, _à la Titus_--one that any closely
cropped gentleman might carry in his pocket to clap on occasionally, when
sitting in a theatre, or any other place where currents of cold air
prevail. Small as it was, however, the barrister felt it depart. He put
his hand to his pocket and found it wigless; and there, close by his side,
stood Bob Jenkinson with the wig in his hand--wig-struck, as it were; for
had the prize been a bandana, or a snuff-box, or any _ordinary_
pocket-property, Bob would have bolted with it _instanter_. "What do you
mean by that--you scoundrel?" said the barrister. Bob dropped the wig; the
barrister took it up; and having re-pocketed it he deliberately gave
unlucky Bob in charge to the watch.
Robert had not a word to say in his defence, and the magistrate committed
him for trial.
A BRUMMYJUM OUTRIDER.
One Mr. Peter Muttlebury, a personage with the exterior of a hackney
coachman, of the _down_-est cut, but who called himself "a _Brummyjum_
out-rider," was brought before the magistrate one snowy morning, charged
with having _borrowed_, with intent to _steal_, an eight guinea inlaid
gold and silver snuff-box, with its contents, viz., almost half an ounce
of high-dried Irish, from a Mr. William Wilkins--a very small gentleman in
a very large cloak, worn military-wise--after the present highly
picturesque fashion, which makes a man-milliner look as magnificent as a
Field-Marshal.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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