Page:Life and adventures of that notorious robber and murderer, Richard Turpin.pdf/4

Rh fortunate that some of our public characters (using the term in the sense referred to) have been eqnallyequally [sic] distinguished for their virtus, as Turpin and his compeers have been for their deeds of abomination; though the blackest crimes touch the public mind more forcibly, and not less transiently, than the brighest amiabilities, the latter being limiteelimited [sic] to the circle in which the possessor moved while the former is rung in heavy numbers upon the lisfeninglistening [sic] ear of the populace at large, catch the sounds as they vibrstevibrate [sic] with the tensest anxiety and perturbation.

Dick Turpin was for a long time the dread of travellers on the Essex road, an account of the daring robberies he daily committed; he was also a noted housebreaker; and though for a considerable time remarkably successful in his desporatedesperate [sic] career of robbery he was brought to an ignominious end, by circumstances which, in themselves, may appear trifling: he was apprehended in consequence of shooting a fowl; and his brother refusing to pay 6d. for the postage of his letter occasioned his conviction. He was the son of a farmer and grazier at Thaxted, in Essex, the place of his birth; and, having received a common school education, he was apprenticed to a butcher in White-chapel, in whose house he was conspicuous for gross impropriety of behaviour, and brutality of manners. On the expiration of his apprenticeship, at the persuasion of his friends, who hoped such a course would restrain his evil pursuits, he wedded a young woman of East Ham, in