The Great North Road, the Old Mail Road to Scotland: York to EdinburghHarper, Charles G. (Charles George)
History
The Great North Road, the Old Mail Road to Scotland: York to Edinburgh
Harper, Charles G. (Charles George)
A1 Road (England and Scotland); England -- Social life and customs; Great Britain -- Description and travel
prisoner as the Richard Turpin who had long been “wanted” for many
crimes.
After his trial and condemnation the farmers flocked in hundreds to see
him. His last days in prison were as well attended as a levee, and, to
do him justice, his courage, conspicuously lacking at other times, never
faltered at the last. He became one of the shows of that ancient city
for a time, but nothing daunted him. He spent his last days in joking,
drinking, and telling stories, as jovial, merry, and frolicsome as though
the shadow of the gallows was not impending over him. He scouted the
Ordinary, and suffered no twinges of conscience, but busied himself in
preparing a decent costume for his last public appearance. Nothing would
serve him but new clothes and a smart pair of pumps to die in. On the
morning before the execution, he gave the hangman £3. 10s. to be divided
among five men who were to follow him as mourners, and were to be
furnished with black hatbands and mourning gloves. When the time came
and he went in the tumbril to be turned off, he bowed to the ladies and
flourished his cocked hat as though he would presently see them again.
He certainly, when he had mounted the ladder, kept the people waiting for
the spectacle they had come to see, for he talked with the hangman for
over half-an-hour. But when the conversation was ended, he threw himself
off in the most resolute fashion, and had the reward of his courage, for
he died in a moment.
Thus died the famous Turpin, in the thirty-third year of his age. After
the execution his body lay in state for that day and the succeeding night
at the “Black Boar” inn in Castlegate. The following morning it was
buried in the churchyard of St. George’s, by Fishergate Postern, and the
evening afterwards it was dug up again by some of the city surgeons, for
dissection. By this time the mob had apparently agreed that this brutal
horse-stealer, who according to the contemporary _London Magazine_, was
“so mean and stupid a wretch,” was really a very fine fellow; and they
determined that his remains should not be dishonoured. Accordingly they
rescued the body and reinterred it, in black lime, so as to effectually
balk any further attempts on the part of the surgeons.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account