Yorkshire Oddities, Incidents, and Strange EventsBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
History
Yorkshire Oddities, Incidents, and Strange Events
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Legends -- England -- Yorkshire; Yorkshire (England) -- Miscellanea
"I continued to live in the cottage above alluded to, and my family
increasing rapidly, rendered it necessary to extend my operations. The
farmers in the neighbourhood were at first the greatest sufferers, and
there was scarcely a barn or granary within several miles which I had
not the means of entering when I chose. Either from discarded servants,
or from labourers who were daily about the farm-houses, I got all the
information I wanted.
"At this time I was master of two good horses, and I had a numerous
connexion among servants and labourers. But what I found most useful was
a secret understanding with two or three millers, by whose means I got
rid of all the corn which I stole. Millers are generally reputed to be
great rogues, but in their dealings with me I found them quite the
contrary. The most dishonest persons with whom I had dealings were the
attorneys, and they stripped me of the fruits of my toil with most
surprising expedition and facility. This, however, will be seen in the
sequel.
"About this time I was concerned in a robbery at Bubwith, by which I
obtained a considerable sum of money. After our arrangements were made,
a comrade entered the house through a back window, by taking an iron
bar out of the frame, the wood being quite rotten from age and damp. In
scrambling in he kicked from the shelf a large earthenware vessel, and
immediately after he himself tumbled head foremost into the pantry, a
depth of six or seven feet. The uproar occasioned by his fall caused us
to take to our heels and make to our horses, which were at no great
distance, in a large field behind the house. We laid down and listened
for a considerable time, and hearing nothing, we approached the house
again by degrees, and eventually got up to the very window. A low
whistle from me was instantly answered, which at once told us all went
well. We found the back door open for us, and our comrade, no way
alarmed, busy rummaging some drawers, and putting into a sack everything
he took a fancy to.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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