Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 3.djvu/417

TO 1660.] terrible, and were infested by sturdy bands of robbers. In the neighbourhood of Loudon, Finchley, Blackheath, Wimbleon, and Shooters Hill were places of well-known fame for daring highwaymen. It was high time for the puritans to come into power, and to put both town and country under a more wholesome discipline. Cromwell's soldiers, quartered in various parts of the metropolis, and his major-generals administering martial law in different parts of the country, soon altered the face of things. He shut up Spring Gardens, a place of nocturnal resort for assignations for traffickers in political corruption, and for various licentiousness; and instead of fellows prowling about the streets with sweetmeats in their pockets to kidnap children, and sell them to the plantations, he sent these scoundrels freely thither themselves. Amongst the gloomy features of this period, is the relentless persecution of old women, under the belief that they were witches; a practice commenced by James, but continued by the puritans, who sent out Hopkins, the notorious