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DREAMS
Unlock inner wisdom, discover meaning, and refocus your life
 Senior Editor Emma Hill
Senior Art Editor Karen Constanti
US Editor Kayla Dugger
Designer Amy Child
Editorial Assistant Kiron Gill
Senior Jacket Creative Nicola Powling

CONTENTS
Jackets Coordinator Lucy Philpott
Senior Producer (Pre-production)
Tony Phipps
Senior Producer Luca Bazzoli
Creative Technical Support
Sonia Charbonnier Foreword 8
Managing Editor Dawn Henderson
Managing Art Editor Marianne Markham
Art Director Maxine Pedliham
Publishing Director Mary-Clare Jerram THE THEORY
Illustrated by Weitong Mai OF DREAMS
First American Edition, 2019
Published in the United States by DK Publishing
Why Do We Dream? 12
1450 Broadway, Suite 801, New York, NY 10018 What Is Healthy Sleep? 14
Copyright © 2019 Dorling Kindersley Limited Sleep Hygiene 16
DK, a Division of Penguin Random House LLC
19 20 21 22 23 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 The Dream Pioneers 20
001–312772–Oct/2019
Dream Interpretation
All rights reserved. Through the Ages 24
Without limiting the rights under the copyright
reserved above, no part of this publication may Dreams as Divine Guidance 26
be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by
Precognitive Dreams 28
any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise), without the prior written
permission of the copyright owner.
Published in Great Britain by Dorling Kindersley
Limited

A catalog record for this book

is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-1-4654-8241-9

Printed and bound in China

A WORLD OF IDEAS:
SEE ALL THERE IS TO KNOW

www.dk.com
DREAM SKILLS Ghosts 68
Groundwork for Dream Recall 32 Dead Bodies 70
Tips for Dream Recall 34 Terrorists 72
How to Decode Your Dreams 36 Rescuing People 74
Lucid Dreaming 46 Feeling Responsible
for Others 76
THE DREAM Stranger Carrying
DIRECTORY a Long Object 78
Using the Dream Directory 50 SEX
PEOPLE Making Love 80
An Old Man or Woman 52 Watching Sexual Activity 82
Unfaithful Partner 54 CHILDHOOD
Pregnancy 56 Childhood Home 84
A Former Lover 58 Wooden Toys 86
Someone Singing 60 Toys Coming Alive 90
Kissing a Loved One 62 Back to School 92
Your Parents 66

Continued
HOUSES AND ROOMS PLACES
A Closet 94 Dark Underground Places 122
Something in the Attic 96 A Bridge Leading
Empty Old Houses 98 to Nowhere 126
Burning Houses 100 Other Worlds 128
Crumbling Walls 102 Crossroads 130
Unfamiliar Keys 104 Former Workplace 132
Searching for the Bathroom 106 An Unknown Landscape 134

TRAVEL PRESSURE
Driving 108 Under Pressure 136
Flying 110 Tests and Exams 138
Transportation 114 Being Chased 140
Accidents 116 Being Late 142
A Passport 118 Falling 144
Alien Spacecraft 120 Squeezing Through a Hole 146
Marathon Running 148
Work Performance 152
Naked in Public 154
LOSS Tree Flourishing 190
Missing Body Parts 156 Uprooted Tree 192
Lost Wallet 158 Rotting Fruit 194
Baggage Left Behind 162 Volcano Erupting 196
Redundancy 164
Being Lost 166 WATER
Shoeless 168 Drowning 198
Funerals 170 Swimming in the Ocean 200
Deceased Pets 172 A Submerged Vessel 202
Tsunamis and Floods 204
ANIMALS
Domestic Animals 174 Glossary 208
Horses 178 Further Reading 211
Wild Animals 180 Psychotherapy Websites 211
Reptiles 182 Sources 212
Insects 184 Counseling and Psychotherapy 213
Index 214
NATURE Acknowledgments 224
Maggots in Fruit 186
 FOREWORD
Dreams are our allies. They are magical friends clearer understanding of how the psyche works.
that teach us about who we are and why we are But dream interpretation is essentially
here, even if they sometimes appear as nonscientific: one size does not fit all. Many
nightmares. They have been known to trace factors must be considered, and these pages
long-lost friends from thousands of miles away, are here to introduce and hopefully encourage
to predict where people are going to live, and you to pursue your interest.
to give advice with a wisdom beyond the Dreams seem to cooperate only when they
dreamer’s conscious mind. And yet most deem it’s the right time. This does not come
people claim they seldom dream—besides, from some haughty hierarchy of power, with
aren’t they all just garbage? psyche in control over conscious mind, yet we
Making sense of dreams is undeniably for must respect their dominion—the dream world
most people a difficult, if not impossible, task. is not to be commanded or taken lightly.
This book is designed to help decode the more As you will discover, the messages—often
common ones and to point readers toward a delivered through the medium of metaphor or

8
symbols—are the most intriguing aspect of and an upsurge in mental and physical
dreams. Why do they arrive, astute and to the distress worldwide. People are increasingly
point? Why in metaphors? Consider the turning inward to try to get in touch with
practice of ancient teachers: they told stories guidance so sadly lacking out there. Through
almost exclusively in this way, helping followers studying your dreams, interpreting wherever
understand important concepts by offering possible the extraordinary overview our
verbal pictures to explain their meaning. psyches clearly possess, you might learn and
Dreams seem to follow the same format: discover what else lies waiting for exploration
always our wise teacher, however confusing in those hidden realms.
they can sometimes seem at first. Reflection
later is invaluable, and this is where The Dream
Directory should help steer your thinking.
Life today is hard—if not alarming—as we
contemplate global warming, political chaos,

9
THE THEORY
OF DREAMS
 WHY DO
WE DREAM?
Scientists do their best to answer this
question, but the fact is no one knows.
They have discovered that we dream
between four and six times a night,
lasting between 5 and 20 minutes a
time, and that everyone has dreams
because they are necessary for our
emotional, mental, and physical health.

In a normal lifespan, we spend no fewer than

6 years dreaming. But what is its purpose?
Researchers write of memory consolidation—of
throwing out the day-to-day waste clogging up
our brain. They claim we dream in order to clear
unnecessary neural connections, making room
for creativity.
They can even tell us how and roughly what
we are dreaming about thanks to the arrival of
brain-imaging machines. But they have still yet
to discover why we dream.

12
 Why Do We Dream?

A link to the collective unconscious also existed for our ancient ancestors, seers,
Dreams are a conduit to the higher and deeper and prophets?
realms of the mind. If you imagine an island If the sacred task of dreams is to help us—
with only its hills and peaks showing above the without technology’s limitations—to make more
ocean, it represents symbolically the depth and spiritual sense of those hidden realms of the
width of our unconscious world. Next, imagine unconscious, perhaps it is timely to believe
that ocean bed going, as it does, right around they are nudging us forward in this turbulent
the globe and appreciate how it must connect world to a more holistic way of life.
with everything. This is the basis for Carl Jung’s
theory of the collective unconscious, where we
are all somehow connected. Psychics say this REM AND NREM SLEEP
linking mind energy lies behind their clairvoyant
ability, privy to the wholeness of our world. Using brainwave technology, researchers
Undoubtedly, quantum physicists are now discovered that dreaming occurs mainly
coming up with fascinating research into during rapid eye movement (REM) behind
“outside time,” which could perhaps definitively closed eyelids. We dream in sleep cycles—
lead to an answer to the great mysteries. sometimes REM, but also nonrapid eye
movement (NREM), alternating several times
a night. The same may be true of your pets:
Dreams as messages
Have you noticed they twitch in their sleep,
Most traditional rationalists are at a loss to
as if excited or chasing their prey?
explain how it is that people can dream
Laboratory researchers note a comparable
accurately about their own personal future. dreaming state in human volunteers, whose
They go weeks without remembering any heads are wired up to measure brainwave
nighttime scenario, then suddenly a vivid, activity, as they move in and out of the
prescient message from the unknown respective cycles. Any emotional responses
surprises them. to the dream narrative are clearly traced to
Dream messages and precognition have synchronize with the electrooculography
been recorded for thousands of years. Could (EOG) measure, but technology is unable to
we, at some level, be tapping into information decipher the dream content.
from the collective unconscious, which

13
The Theory of Dreams

WHAT IS Nightmares

HEALTHY
When we think of nightmares, they are usually
of the fear-based kind young children confront
in their sleep—open as they are to new

SLEEP? impressions and bewildering input throughout

each day. Monsters and frightening ghosts in
the closet are paradoxically helpful: children
Most adults sleep between 7 and 9 learn in time that monsters don’t exist and that
they’ve conquered their fears—another step
hours a night. It may seem like a long toward self-confidence.
time out of your day not to be But adults experience nightmares as well.
working, running errands, or having Usually appearing in the first hour or so in the
fun, but these hours are essential to NREM phase of sleep, these are of a different
nature, caused by serious reality. Posttraumatic
your health and well-being.
stress disorder (PTSD) often lies behind
Sleeping well means you safeguard your entire persistent nightmares. Mental illness of all kinds
system—body, mind, and spirit. It increases and substance abuse can cause a variety of
your levels of energy and helps you to think sleep disorders, from disturbing nightmares to
efficiently. It also improves your immune insomnia. For example, schizophrenia involves
function for fighting, for example, the common distortion of perception, delusions, and
cold. More importantly, a regular good night’s hallucinations as part of the pattern, which can
sleep protects your cardiovascular system, lead to dreams with similar distortions. And too
blood sugar levels, and propensity to stress, much alcohol—however initially relaxing—
decreasing your chances of seriously disabling affects the quality of sleep, even to the point of
conditions such as heart attacks and strokes. So insomnia. Prescribed sleeping tablets can also
a good night’s rest is crucial for a whole range affect the real advantages of sleep. Some of
of health reasons. Unfortunately, there are those drugs interfere with the circadian rhythm
certain sleep disorders that can negatively and prevent the sleeper from reaching REM
impact our ability to form or maintain healthy (rapid eye movement) and benefiting from the
sleep patterns. healing quality of deep sleep.

14
 What Is Healthy Sleep?

CIRCADIAN RHYTHM

Your circadian rhythm is a 24-hour body clock

that functions on a regular cycle of alertness
and drowsiness. This means during the day—
Recurring dreams think postlunch snooze—as well as when you
Recurring dreams are another aspect of the sleep. Vivid or bewildering dreams that occur,
disorder spectrum, as they are distressing when for example, at times you’ve flown halfway
predictably unpleasant. If the conscious mind around the world or worked night shifts are
associated not only with poor-quality sleep,
has not fully processed past emotional trauma,
but with unhelpful dreams. Trying to decode
anger, grief, or fearful episodes, then the
them is a thankless task. Why? The blame
unconscious mind will keep replaying it.
lies with upset hormones resulting from the
It is as if that hidden world of the psyche is
interruption of your circadian rhythm. The
trying unsuccessfully to get the message psyche cannot deliver its subtle messages
through to consciousness. from the unconscious under these
It will keep repeating unless those powerful conditions, so it is better to wait for your
emotions are released from their trapped state, circadian rhythm to settle
usually by therapy. back to normal.

15
 SLEEP
HYGIENE
The word “hygiene” in the context of
a good night’s sleep seems strange.
However, like the value of cleanliness,
it means that in order to function
healthily, you need a disciplined
approach to your sleeping habits.
Interruptions, constant late nights, and
too much alcohol or caffeine all
contribute to what is called poor-
quality sleep hygiene.

16
 Sleep Hygiene

Developing a bedtime routine blackout material or, better still, use interlined,
Just as babies need to settle into a familiar heavy curtains. If noise is a problem (a snoring
pattern for bedtime, it’s important for you to partner, perhaps, or traffic hum), a white-noise
stick to a regular routine. A growing body of machine is ideal. You can choose from various
research suggests that the blue light emitted models, but ones that offer a choice of
from digital screens prevents your brain from background ambient and natural sounds—such
releasing melatonin, which lets your body know as a waterfall or birdsong—can be extraordinarily
when it’s time to sleep; therefore, resist scrolling effective due to their predictable cadences.
through messages right before bed. Also, avoid
having a lively discussion with anyone. You will
finish the conversation (or fight) “wired” and have THE POWER OF CHEESE
much more difficulty falling asleep.
Cheese—usually associated with bad
A book at bedtime can be soothing. A warm
dreams—can be a beneficial aid to a good
bath, yoga, or evening meditation all provide a
night’s sleep. Cheese contains naturally high
healthy, relaxing mental space to prepare you
levels of tryptophan; from this amino acid,
for sleep. Worries tend to be more intense when the brain produces serotonin, which is vital
your body and mind are tired from the day’s for a sense of well-being and happiness.
activities, and you are less likely to see them in Tryptophan is used to help premenstrual
perspective. Meditation can help push those syndrome in women, as well as those
increasing anxieties away, or at least release suffering from SAD (seasonal affective
tense shoulders and calm a whirring brain. disorder) or other depressive symptoms, and
it is also effective in encouraging restfulness
Creating an optimum setting and a good night’s sleep. Beyond the fact
Is the room where you sleep comfortable and that really strong, powerfully smelly cheese
contains other compounds related to
pleasantly warm without being too warm? A
tryptophan that can induce some lively
cool 60–65°F (16–18°C) is thought to be the
dreams, the old wives’ tale about avoiding
ideal temperature in a bedroom.
cheese at bedtime doesn’t stand up.
If there are bright lights outside your
bedroom window at home, put up some

17
WHO LOOKS OUTSIDE,
DREAMS; WHO LOOKS
INSIDE, AWAKES.

CARL JUNG
MEMORIES, DREAMS, REFLECTIONS
The Theory of Dreams

THE DREAM
PIONEERS
The ancients knew about dreams—
though we glean most through biblical
accounts—but it was not until the
early 20th century that modern dream
interpretation gained a wider
understanding. Instead of burning
bushes and fiery chariots (which now
sound more like UFO sightings than a
prophet’s warning), dream content
held fascinating, intimate details to
professional observers. Their
significance was seen as profoundly
meaningful, revealing at last the inner
workings of the dreamer’s mind.

20
 The Dream Pioneers

Sigmund Freud be accepted by his skeptical peers, it was

Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud, the essential to keep to a strict, rational position.
acknowledged founder of psychoanalysis, He failed to accept any mystical, otherworldly
ranks as the foremost leader of talk therapy. interpretations suggested by one or two of
Freud was the first to recognize the significance his students.
of dreams in mental health. He published his Significantly, Freud saw the connection
book, The Interpretation of Dreams, in 1900, between the tragic Greek character Oedipus—
setting the stage for psychoanalytic theory and accidentally killing his father and marrying
electrifying his colleagues with its daring his widowed mother, believing he had been
content: Freud believed his patients’ sleep adopted at birth—and the hidden, repressed
narratives largely held covert sexual conflict. sexual longings in his patients.
However, several researchers have Though he is known mostly today for his
wondered since if his own personal struggle theory of repression, Freud developed other
with his sexual leanings was not sometimes important ideas still widely respected over a
coloring his interpretations. He insisted that to century later by mental health practitioners.

“ FREUD BELIEVED HIS PATIENTS’

SLEEP NARRATIVES LARGELY HELD
COVERT SEXUAL CONFLICT.
” Continued

21
The Theory of Dreams

“ JUNG SAW A DREAM AS THE

EXPRESSION OF THE WISDOM
OF THE UNCONSCIOUS.
”
Carl Jung
An analytical psychologist and Freud’s student into a unique individual. He maintained that
for some years, Swiss-born Carl Jung’s name is women have a masculine (animus) side to their
synonymous with dream interpretation. Jung psyche while men have a feminine (anima) side,
has influenced modern dream studies more both of which are essential for that journey.
than anyone. Opposed to his mentor’s Unlike Freud, he embraced the holistic way
professed one-track view of dream analysis, of life. Jung believed in alchemy, astrology, and
Jung broke away, insisting that dreams come mythology. He had the courage to embark on
from a transcendental source—the world of the self-analysis to the point of confronting his own
spirit. He declared they reflect our waking unconscious world, considered a dangerous
selves and help solve problems, a far more exercise. But as a result of enduring a mental
positive take that contributed to his philosophy breakdown, he emerged with clear ideas about
that the human psyche has greater influence archetypes, complexes, the collective
than personal experience alone. unconscious, and individuation, all of which still
This led Jung to develop his own ideas about influence psychiatric and psychological
the value of dreams, far removed from hints at teaching today.
the forbidden in disguised form. He saw a dream
as the expression of the wisdom of the Calvin S. Hall
unconscious. He believed it was often cloaked in A younger contemporary of Jung, American-
symbolism or metaphor, powerfully integrating born Calvin Springer Hall approached the world
the conscious with the unconscious—and he of dreams from a different perspective. A
valued that concept highly. behavioral psychologist, he developed a
Jung saw dreams as useful indicators to cognitive theory of dreams in the middle of the
determine the dreamer’s journey toward last century, rejecting Jung’s belief that dream
individuation: transforming an unformed person content sometimes comes from higher levels

22
 The Dream Pioneers

outside the self. He contended they were only of their condition. But unlike Jung, he claimed
the result of the dreamer’s personal thoughts, to be able to examine trauma in previous
hopes, fears, and experiences. lifetimes—as in reincarnation—which frequently
Hall declared that dreams convey the explained their present troubles.
dreamer’s conceptions of self, family, friends, Cayce’s story began as a boy. He was upset
and so on—and that they revealed qualities by his father’s anger at his difficulty with
(for example, “weak,” “domineering,” or “loving”) learning spelling. Once, he laid down with his
that essentially mirror the dreamer’s own views. head on a spelling book and fell fast asleep.
Strangely, when he woke up, he knew all the
Edgar Cayce correct answers. Later, he learned in the sleep
American-born Edgar Cayce, the son of a poor state how to cure his chronic loss of voice and
Kentucky farmer, became famous in the early to heal a long-term boyhood ailment.
part of the 20th century because of his ability to Cayce was affectionately known as “The
dream clairvoyantly, diagnosing thousands of Sleeping Prophet.” Thousands of patients over
grateful patients and—from the sleep state— the years asked for his help and valued his
recommending healing remedies. “prescriptions”—holistic treatments such as
The dream world was central to his being. homeopathy, essential oils, mud baths, special
Cayce unwittingly illustrated Jung’s idea of diets, and meditation. He used to say “Dreams
group consciousness, demonstrating how he are tonight’s answers to tomorrow’s questions,”
was able to “see” from afar and diagnose and, like Jung, used symbols to convey
unfamiliar people without any prior knowledge meaning to dreams.

23
 DREAM
INTERPRETATION
THROUGH THE
AGES
Dreams must have been around for millennia
but were first recorded when early civilizations
were at their height. We know little of
prehistory—though there are beautiful cave
paintings all over the world, still being
discovered. Yet they have kept their secrets.
We may never learn if the vividly colored
animal murals were inspired by the artists’
dreams or plans for tomorrow’s hunt.

24
 “ THE EGYPTIANS PRODUCED
THE FIRST EVER BOOK
ON DREAMS.
”
The ancient Egyptians, however, did reveal their butterfly seeing the dreamer?” They were
dreams because they had the motivation to do hardly a guide to self-help.
so and the skills to describe them. But they—
like other ancient races before and after Bad omens
them—regarded dreams mainly as signposts Our ancient ancestors’ recorded dreams were
for the quality of life in their outer world. They polarized in their narratives, delivered in
had yet to explore the life of the inner world. simplistic terms—success or failure. For
That was to come thousands of years later. example, in The Egyptian Book of Dreams, red
ink on papyrus denoted bad tidings: red being
Early forms of dream interpretation the color of bad omens then. The Hebrews
The Egyptians produced the first ever book on thought along the same lines, also not yet
dreams. Made of papyrus and discovered in ready for the subtleties of dreams as we know
sandy ruins near the Nile, The Egyptian Book of them today. Only the aboriginal cultures
Dreams was written nearly 3,000 years ago, yet embraced the spiritual concept of oneness with
with no reference to the hidden depths of the the world, understanding that everything and
mind. The Greeks and Romans were big on everyone was imbued with spirit, an invisible
omens and portents, too. Psychologists today energy that connected all.
would chuckle at the priests’ checklist of Somehow, a split occurred in civilizations
symbols and interpretations. But we must where spiritual power was ascribed to unseen
remember that symbols were tailored to the gods ruling from afar and making decisions for
times. Seers were employed to look for good or the people. Gone was the prehistoric sense of
bad fortune ahead for their masters. oneness with the universe, a joyous connection
One thousand years before that, the Chinese between the inner and outer world.
were placing great store on dreams as well. But Its disappearance over the centuries was to
they viewed them more as a means to explore cause catastrophic results, such as religious
the vast world of spirit, not as a representation wars. That split from personal/divine power to
of their own destinies or spiritual development. divine monopoly was a serious loss, despite
Limited accounts trickling down through the society’s giant technological strides.
centuries sound more philosophic in content:
“Is the dreamer seeing a butterfly, or a sleeping

25
The Theory of Dreams

DREAMS
AS DIVINE
GUIDANCE
Our more recent ancient ancestors
believed divine guidance came only
from without. Biblical stories emphasize
this, with constant reference to those
celestial voices and visions dreamed
by the prophets and reported to the
multitudes. Yet ordinary people may
have been able to foretell the future,
with the more prudent dreamers
keeping quiet—either unable to record
their prophecies or, more likely,
remaining silent through fear of reprisal.

26
 Dreams as Divine Guidance

Dangerous times the world would end, 211 years before the
If a dream held a message or glimpses of the Mayans’ inaccurate forecast for this century, so
future not foretold by an accepted prophet of her gift was at times flawed.)
God, it was blasphemous to early Christians. Burning witches for presumed rejection of
They had embraced the monotheistic 18th- the Church’s teaching started in southern
dynasty Pharaoh Akhenaten’s insistence that France in the 14th century. That grim practice
there was only one God (as did Moses, who spread to England in the 16th century. Mother
was raised in Egypt), communicating His wishes Shipton avoided a terrible death by disguising
through a chosen few—chiefly His main her dream visions in verse: hard to decode
followers. Joseph and Daniel are recorded to clearly enough to condemn her to the fires.
have received dozens of dreams from God, A fellow sensitive, French-born Nostradamus
faithfully reported in the Bible. penned Les Propheties, a set of extraordinary
But ordinary people kept silent—for the next insights (did he dream them, or use a crystal
1,000 years or so. Then two Europeans in the ball?) in dense quatrains published in 1555. The
15th and the 16th century began taking risks, book became a bestseller over the next few
despite the fear of punishment. One such was centuries and, incredibly, is still in print.
Old Mother Shipton of Yorkshire, England, who Many researchers since have been
described her visions in rhymed couplets, skeptical of his prophecies, yet the Provençal
largely domestic in content—though she did physician is credited with forecasting the two
predict horseless carriages, which came World Wars, nuclear destruction, the attack
hundreds of years later, and that iron boats on the World Trade Center, and catastrophic
would navigate the seas. (She also predicted climate change.
The Theory of Dreams

PRECOGNITIVE
DREAMS
By the 19th century, recognition of the Glimpses into the future
value of the inner world had arrived. It is widely believed that nearly half the

Sigmund Freud pioneered this, realizing population of the world has clairvoyant
dreams—not of the dramatic kind listed on the
his patients were struggling with far next page, but day-to-day glimpses into the
deeper problems not recognized by the future. They can be tantalizing snippets or
conscious mind. The mystery of bewilderingly accurate pictures. Relevant to
every single one is that they are always ahead
precognitive dreams coming from the
of time.
same realms had yet to be revealed It is public knowledge that governments
until his colleague, Carl Jung, worldwide have used people gifted with ESP
conceived his theory of the collective to view remotely—an ability to acquire
unconscious—the concept that we are information about a distant place—for military
purposes. So we might reasonably ask the
all connected with all things. question: Is there really any difference between
officially accepted remote viewing (as it is
called) and clairvoyant dreaming?

Quantum physics
Now quantum physics has paved the way to
understanding the impossible. It is pointing to
the likelihood that precognitive material is a
valid phenomenon, for time—as we’ve known
it—now appears meaningless at the subatomic

28
 Precognitive Dreams

CASE STUDY: REBECCA

UK research scientist and television presenter
Dr. Christopher Evans once told Rebecca: “If
you can bring proof of a clairvoyant dream, I
will believe you.” Hearing the mail carrier
arrive a few weeks later in December, she
alerted her husband: “I’ve just dreamed
Peggie has sent an airmail from the States
—something to do with an Egyptian mummy
and clothing in blue-green. Please note this
before I go downstairs and open the
envelope, if it’s there.” He did. She then
opened Peggie’s letter, which asked her to
level. In our sleep state, we can buy a robe in blue-green for “Mummy’s
Christmas present.” Rebecca called Dr. Evans
trace old friends on the other side of
and arranged to meet, but he politely refused
the world, have a chat, embrace, and be back
to accept the sequence of her story. He
home for breakfast.
insisted that she’d already read the letter,
imagining later that she’d dreamed the letter
Clairvoyant dreamers contents before she opened it.
Clairvoyants—men and women with extra So most scientists continue to hold their
sensory perception (ESP)—and precognitive stance, while psychics hold theirs—a deadlock
dreamers all seem to have one thing in between the two, it seems. But there is hope.
common: somehow, they tap into a timeless As eminent American cell biologist Dr. Bruce
zone where the past, present, and future are Lipton says in his best-selling book The
one. Here are just a few examples: Biology of Belief: “I truly believe that only when
Abraham Lincoln dreamed of his death just Spirit and Science are reunited will we be
afforded the means to create a better world.”
before his assassination.
Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity came to
him in a dream.
Beatles musician Paul McCartney
composed “Yesterday” after hearing the
melody in a dream.
Golfer Jack Nicklaus dreamed of a new way
to hold his golf club for victory.
Novelist Robert Louis Stevenson first saw Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in a dream before writing
his famous book.

29
 Another Random Document on
Scribd Without Any Related Topics
 Ainsworth was the unconscious predisposing cause of much of
Skelt's Juvenile Drama, that singular collection of remarkably mild
plays for toy theatres, allied with terrific scenes and the most
picturesque figures conceived, drawn and engraved in the wildest
spirit of melodrama, and in the most extravagant attitudes. No such
scenery ever existed as that drawn by Skelt's anonymous artists. It
was a decided improvement upon Nature; and no heroes so heroic
and no villains so villainous could possibly have lived and moved as
those imagined by his staff of draughtsmen. Dick Turpin was of
course in the forefront of the thirty-three plays published by Skelt,
and the pictured characters do full justice—and perhaps a trifle over
—to the entirely illegitimate fame Turpin has acquired. You see them
reproduced here, engraved line for line from Skelt, scattered over
the pages of this reconsideration of Turpin. Firstly, you have the
great brethren, Turpin and Tom King, themselves, mounted on noble
steeds that stretch themselves gallantly in their stride; and then you
have Sir Ralph Rookwood and that intelligent officer, Simon
Sharpscent, also on horseback, hurrying off in company, but upon
the trail of the highwaymen. Simon Sharpscent, you will observe,
has in his hand a something that looks not unlike a Field Marshal's
bâton. It is the police-officer's crown-tipped staff of office; and
producing it he will presently say, dramatically: "I arrest you in the
King's name!"
Always, with the remarkable exception of the group of
"Highwaymen Carousing," these characters are intensely dramatic in
their attitudes; but the carousing highwaymen are unexpectedly
wooden; although they look capable of being daredevil fellows when
the generous wine, or the old ale—whichever it may be—has done
its work. Even the "Maid of the Inn" is a creature of romance.
 MAID OF THE INN.
(Skelt.)

HIGHWAYMEN CAROUSING.
(Skelt.)

Although Ainsworth invented Turpin's Ride to York, he certainly did

not invent Black Bess, nor did he conceive the ride as an attempt to
establish an alibi; for he shows him hotly pursued by the officers of
the law, nearly all the way. In Ainsworth's pages you find no reason
why the ride should have been undertaken. I have elsewhere
remarked that Ainsworth invented Black Bess, as well as robbed
Swiftnicks of the glory of the ride; but a further acquaintance with
the literature of the early part of the nineteenth century discloses
the curious fact that Horace Smith in 1825, in a volume entitled
Gaieties and Gravities, included a story called "Harry Halter," in
which that highwayman hero is represented as sitting at the "Wig
and Water Spaniel," in Monmouth Street, with his friends of the
same persuasion, Ned Noose, and Old Charley Crape, and singing
the ballad of
Turpin and the Bishop
Bold Turpin upon Hounslow Heath
His black mare Bess bestrode,
When he saw a Bishop's coach and four
Sweeping along the road;
He bade the coachman stop, but he,
Suspecting of the job,
His horses lash'd—but soon roll'd off,
With a brace of slugs in his nob.

Galloping to the carriage-door,

He thrust his face within,
When the Chaplain said—"Sure as eggs is eggs,
That is the bold Turpin."
Quoth Turpin, "You shall eat your words
With sauce of leaden bullet";
So he clapp'd his pistol to his mouth,
And fired it down his gullet.

The Bishop fell upon his knees,

When Turpin bade him stand,
And gave him his watch, a bag of gold,
And six bright rings from his hand.
Rolling with laughter, Turpin pluck'd
The Bishop's wig from his head,
And popp'd it on the Chaplain's poll,
As he sate in the corner dead.

Upon the box he tied him then,

With the reins behind his back,
Put a pipe in his mouth, the whip in his hand,
And set off the horses, smack!
Then whisper'd in his black mare's ear,
Who luckily wasn't fagg'd,
"You must gallop fast and far, my dear,
Or I shall be surely scragg'd."

He never drew bit, nor stopp'd to bait,

Nor walk'd up hill or down,
Until he came to Gloucester's gate,
Which is the Assizes town.
Full eighty miles in one dark night,
He made his black mare fly,
 And walk'd into Court at nine o'clock
To swear an Alibi.

A hue and cry the Bishop raised,

And so did Sheriff Foster,
But stared to hear that Turpin was
By nine o'clock at Gloucester.
So all agreed it couldn't be him,
Neither by hook nor crook;
And said that the Bishop and Chaplain was
Most certainly mistook.

Here we certainly find Black Bess, not treated to two capital

letters, and only referred to as "his black mare Bess" (it was
reserved for Ainsworth to discover the worth of the alliteration and
the demand it made for two capital B's), but we thus have traced the
invention of that coal-black steed one remove further back, and
there it must rest, for a time, at any rate.
It seems pretty clear that Smith was acquainted with the exploit of
Swiftnicks, but why he transferred the ride to Turpin, and the
purpose of establishing an alibi to Gloucester, does not appear,
unless indeed he wanted a rhyme to "Foster."
 INNKEEPER.
(Skelt.)

Dickens, who wrote Pickwick in 1836, eleven years after Gaieties

and Gravities was published, had evidently read Smith's book, for in
Chapter XLIII. we find Sam Weller represented as singing to the
coachman a condensed and greatly altered version, beginning:
Bold Turpin vunce, on Hounslow Heath
His bold mare Bess bestrode—er;
Ven there he see'd the Bishop's coach
A-coming along the road—er.

That Swiftnicks actually performed the famous ride was generally

believed, as elsewhere described in these pages; and unless any
later evidence can be adduced to deprive him of the credit, he must
continue to enjoy it. But it is curious to note that riding horseback
between York and London under exceptional circumstances has
often been mentioned. A prominent instance is the wager accepted
by John Lepton, esquire to James the First, that he would ride six
times between London and York on six consecutive days. Fuller, in
his Worthies, tells us all about it. He first set out on May 20th, 1606,
from Aldersgate, London, and completed the journey before
nightfall, returning the next day; and so on until he had won the
wager, "to the great praise of his strength in acting, than to his
discretion in undertaking it," says Fuller, with an unwonted sneer.
Turpin was certainly described in his own lifetime as "the noted,"
"the renowned," "the famous," but those were merely newspaper
phrases, and the notability, the renown, or the fame commented
upon in to-day's paper is, we are by way of seeing in our own age,
the oblivion of next week. The London Magazine, commenting briefly
on his execution, styles him a "mean and stupid wretch," and that
estimate of him is little likely ever to be revised, although it may
readily and justly be amplified by the epithets "brutal" and
"cowardly." The brutalities of himself and his associates kept the
suburbs of London for a while in terror, but he evidently had made
little impression on the mind of Captain Charles Johnson, whose
book on The General History of Highwaymen, published in 1742,
three years after Turpin's execution, has no mention of him.
Yet, side by side with these facts, we are confronted with the
undoubted immediate ballad fame he acquired in the north, of which
here are two pitiful specimen verses:
For shooting of a dunghill cock
Poor Turpin he at last was took;
And carried straight into a jail,
Where his misfortune he does bewail,
O rare Turpin hero,
O rare Turpin O!
Now some do say that he will hang—
Turpin the last of all the gang;
I wish the cock had ne'er been hatched,
For like a fish in the net he's catched.

Pedlars hawked these untutored productions widely over the

country, and it will be noticed with some amusement that, just as
Robin Hood had been made a popular ballad hero, robbing the rich
to give to the poor, and succouring the widow and the orphan, and
just as Nevison had been similarly enshrined, so Turpin, who would
have been mean enough to rob a poor man of his beer, a poor
widow of her last groat, or to steal a penny out of a blind man's
pannikin (the worst of crimes), was instantly converted into a
blameless martyr. We may, however, readily imagine the ill-treated
Mr. Lawrence of Edgewarebury, rubbing his roasted posteriors and
vehemently dissenting from that estimate of Turpin.
But the ballad-writers did not pretend to historical accuracy, or to
grammar, scansion, or anything but a rude way of appealing to the
feelings of the rustics, whose lives of unremitting toil for poor wages
embittered them more than they knew against the rich; to this
extent, that they imagined virtue resided solely in the lowly cot, and
vice and oppressive feelings exclusively in the lordly hall. Those who
were poor were virtuous, and the highwayman who emptied the
pockets of the rich performed a meritorious service. Hence ballads
like the following grievous example, in which Turpin appears, in spite
of well-ascertained facts, to have been executed at Salisbury:
Turpen's Appeal to the Judge in his defence; or the Gen'rous Robber

Printed and sold by J. Pitts, 6, Great St. Andrew Street, Seven

Dials
Come all you wild and wicked young men
A warning take by me,
A story now to you I'll tell
Of Turpen of Salisbury.
He was a wild and wicked blade
On the High road did he hie,
But at last was tried, and cast,
And condemn'd he was to die.
When before the Judge he came
And at the Bar he did stand,
For no pardon he did ask,
But boldly he held up his hand,
Declared the truth before the Judge
Who was to try him then:—
"I hope, my Lord, you'll pardon me,
I'm not the worst of men,
I the Scripture have fulfilled,
Tho' a wicked life I led,
When the naked I've beheld,
I've cloathed them and fed;
Sometimes in a Coat of Winter's pride,
Sometimes in a russet grey,
The naked I've cloathed, the hungry fed,
And the Rich I've sent empty away.
As I was riding out one day,
I saw a Prisoner going to Jail,
Because his debts he could not pay,
Or yet sufficient bail.
A true and faithful friend he found
In me that very day;
I paid the Creditor forty pounds
Which set the Prisoner free.
When he had my guineas bright,
He told them into his purse,
But I could not be satisfied:
To have 'em again I must.
Boldly I mounted my prancing steed,
And crossing a point of land,
There I met the Creditor,
And boldly bade him stand.
Sir, the debt you owe to me
Amounts to Forty pounds
Which I am resolved to have
 Before I quit this ground.
I search'd his pockets all around,
And robb'd him of his store,
Wherein I found my forty pounds
And Twenty Guineas more.
What harm, my Lord Judge, he said,
What harm was there in this,
To Rob a Miser of his store,
By my stout heartedness.
I never rob'd or wrong'd the poor,
As it plainly does appear;
So I hope you'll pardon me
And be not too severe."
Then the Judge unto bold Turpen said
"Your stories are but in vain,
For by our laws you are condemn'd,
And must receive your pain.
Repent, repent, young man, he said,
For what is done and past,
You say the hungry you've cloathed and fed,
But you must die at last."
It is of course possible that this ballad was not meant for Dick
Turpin at all; for, so widespread in rural districts had his fame early
grown, that "Turpin" became almost a generic name for local
highwaymen, just as after Julius Cæsar all the Emperors of Rome
were Cæsars. It was a name to conjure with: and this no doubt goes
some way to explain the infinitely many alleged "Turpin's haunts" in
widely separated districts: places Turpin could not have found time
to haunt, unless he had been a syndicate.
Away down in Wiltshire, in the neighbourhood of Trowbridge,
between Keevil and Bulkington, and in a soggy level plain watered
by an affluent of the Wiltshire Avon, there stands in a wayside ditch
a hoary object called "Turpin's Stone," inscribed, in letters now
almost entirely obliterated,
Dick Turpin's dead and gone,
This Stone's set up to think upon.
 TURPIN'S STONE.

This curious wayside relic may be found on the boundary-line of

the parishes of Bulkington and Keevil, near a spot oddly named
Brass Pan Bridge, and standing in an evil-smelling ditch that receives
the drainage of the neighbouring pigsties. It is a battered and moss-
grown object, and its inscription, despite the local version of it given
above, is not really decipherable, as a whole. "Turpin" may be read,
easily enough, but if the word above it is meant for "Dick," why then
the sculptor of it spelled the name "Dicq," a feat of illiterate
ingenuity that rather staggers belief. Brake-loads of Wiltshire
archæologists have visited the spot in summer, when county
antiquaries mostly archælogise, and, braving typhoid fever, have
descended into the ditch and sought to unravel the mystery of this
Sphinx: without result.
The village of Poulshot, birthplace of Thomas Boulter, a once-
dreaded highwayman, is not far off, and it is possible that Boulter,
who had a very busy and distinguished career on the highways of
England in general, and of Salisbury Plain in particular, [2] may have
been named locally "Dick Turpin," after the hero who died at York
under tragical circumstances, with the aid of a rope, in 1739. Boulter
himself ended in that way in 1778, at Winchester, and so the
transference of names was quite possible. He, it is significant to
note, had a mare named "Black Bess," which he stole in 1736 from
Mr. Peter Delmé's stables at Erle Stoke.
[2] See the "Exeter Road," pp. 217-228.

There are Turpin "relics" and associations at the "Spaniards," on

Hampstead Heath, and we find the Times of August 22nd, 1838,
saying: "The rear of the houses on Holborn Bridge has for many
years been the receptacle for characters of the most daring and
desperate condition. There, in a secret manège (now a slaughter-
house for her species), did Turpin suffer his favourite Black Bess to
repose for many a night previously to her disastrous journey to
York." The Times had evidently swallowed the Ride to York story
whole, and relished it.
Another, and more cautious commentator says, "He shot people
like partridges. Many wild and improbable stories are told of him,
such as his rapid ride to York, his horse chewing a beef-steak on the
way; but, setting these aside, he was hardy and cruel enough to
shine as a mighty malefactor. He seems, to quote the Newgate jest,
to have been booked, at his very birth, for the Gravesend Coach that
leaves at eight in the morning."
"Many years ago," we read in Pink's History of Clerkenwell, "a
small leather portmanteau was found at the 'Coach and Horses'
tavern, at Hockley-in-the-Hole, with the ends of wood, large enough
to contain a change of linen, besides other little etceteras. On the
inner side of the lid, lightly cut in the surface of the leather, is the
name, 'R. TVRPIN.' Whether or no this portmanteau (such an one as
horsemen formerly carried behind them, strapped to the saddle),
belonged to that famous highwayman," says Pink, "we will not
attempt to decide."

PORTMANTEAU, FORMERLY BELONGING TO TURPIN, DISCOVERED AT

CLERKENWELL.

But here there should not be much room for doubt. The relic was
probably genuine. It was illustrated in Pink's book, but the
whereabouts of it are not now known.
The irons worn by Turpin in his cell at York Castle are now
preserved in the York Museum, together with those used for
Nevison. They have a total weight of 28 lb.
 WILLIAM PARSONS, THE
BARONET'S SON
William Parsons, born in 1717, was the youngest son of a respectable
baronet, Sir William Parsons, of Nottingham; and was so well
connected that he could claim no less a personage than the Duchess
of Northumberland for aunt. Sent to Eton, to complete his education,
he left "Henry's holy shade" in considerable disfavour, and on a visit
to an uncle at Epsom so misconducted himself, that he was bidden
never show his face there again. His behaviour was no better at
Cheshunt, where another relative had the misfortune to receive him
for a time. He was then packed off to sea, as midshipman, aboard
the Drake. Returning at the end of a cruise to England, he continued
in the gaming habits he had early learnt, and, to provide funds for
his amusements, called upon his highly-placed aunt and stole a gold-
mounted miniature from her dressing-room. This he was obliged to
sell for one-fourth its value. We next find him at Buxton, stealing a
gold-buckled pair of shoes in the assembly-room belonging to a Mr.
Graham, and realising on them while the owner, vainly seeking, lost
all his dances.
A cruise aboard the Romney then took him to Newfoundland. He
played cards and cheated aboard ship, and acquired so bad a
character that it was plainly intimated the Navy was not his vocation
and he had better leave it. He accordingly left the service and soon
found himself deserted by his friends and without a stiver in his
breeches pockets.
Realising his wild nature, his father thought it best to secure him
some post that should take him abroad for at least a few years, by
which time his hot blood might have cooled down. To this end, he
procured him a billet with the Royal African Company, on the West
Coast of that then very Dark Continent; but the scapegrace was
soon back in England, having quarrelled with the governor of James
Fort on the Gambia River, to whom he had been accredited. He
landed even more destitute, if possible, than before, and of
necessity lived the simple life, by existing for four whole days on
three half-penny worth of bread. The public fountains supplied him
freely with water, wherewith to wash down those frugal meals.
 WILLIAM PARSONS.

He dared make no more applications to his father for assistance,

for that father was then smarting at having paid £70 to redeem his
honour over a discreditable affair that had taken place in Africa,
where the reckless youth had forged a letter purporting to come
from his aunt, the Duchess, saying she would be answerable for any
debts her nephew might incur, up to that amount. It was folly of the
worst, and most unremunerative, kind, for that aunt, with whom he
had originally been a favourite, revoked the will she had made in his
favour, and left the £25,000, that would have come to him, to his
sister.
It is evident that William Parsons was what would be called in
modern times a "degenerate." In 1740 he borrowed a large sum of
money by a pretence that he was his elder brother, who was the
prospective owner of a considerable legacy. He then succeeded in
making a respectable appearance for a time, and married a young
lady of good family and fortune. By that marriage he acquired a sum
of £4,000, but his wife's trustees, being not quite satisfied with him,
took care to secure the bulk of her property in such a manner that
he could not touch it. Entering the Army in 1741, as an ensign in a
foot regiment, he embarked upon an extravagant manner of living:
obtained a quantity of gold and silver plate from confiding
tradesmen, and kept a large number of servants. He could never
resist the gaming-tables, and although himself a rogue and a
swindler, always found others there who proved more finished than
himself, and thoroughly fleeced him.
He would then turn to forgery, and successfully negotiate forged
bills under well-known names. The Duke of Cumberland's signature
was used for £500. Nothing came amiss to his perverse ingenuity;
and he would even, as an army officer, call upon tailors and pretend
to having a contract for the supply of uniforms. He would pocket a
handsome commission and receive the goods and sell them for what
they would fetch. To be his friend was to be marked down for being
defrauded, and often to be placed in the most embarrassing
situations. Thus in 1745, when the Jacobite rebellion was disturbing
the country, he borrowed a horse of a brother officer and rode away
with it, intending to desert to the rebels. But, thinking better of it, he
went no further than Clerkenwell, where he sold the horse. The late
owner was, in consequence, arrested on charges of desertion and
high treason, and things might quite conceivably have gone hard
with him.
Accounts of Parsons' next doings do not quite agree. By one of
them we learn that he went to Florida as a lieutenant, but according
to another and a more probable version, he was shipped to the
plantations in Virginia as a convict, who had been found guilty of
forgery at Maidstone Assizes, and sentenced to be transported.
Family influence had no doubt prevented his being hanged.
Working as a slave in the plantations belonging to Lord Fairfax, he
attracted the attention of that nobleman, who took him from the
gang of convicted malefactors, with whom, under strict supervision,
he hoed and delved under the blazing sun, and befriended him. It
did not pay to befriend William Parsons. He stole one of the best
horses belonging to his benefactor, and, going upon those early
colonial roads, soon accumulated, as a highwayman, a sufficient sum
to buy himself a passage back to old England.
By fraud, backed up with consummate assurance, he obtained £70
at his port of landing, and came at once to London. A scheme for
plundering his sister, who by this time had succeeded to her aunt's
legacy of £25,000, then engaged his attention. He hatched a plot
with a discharged footman, for that man to pose as a gentleman of
fortune, and to make advances to her, and even to forcibly carry her
off and marry her against her will, if needs were. Some women
servants were also in the plot, and were even given duly signed
bonds in £500 and lesser sums, to lend their aid. The footman and
Parsons were, in the event of this scheme proving successful, to
share the £25,000 in equal parts.
 WILLIAM PARSONS.

By a mere accident, the plot was discovered in a milliner's shop in

the West End, where a lady friend of Miss Parsons had pointed out
to her a finely dressed gentleman, "who was going to marry Miss
Parsons." This led to enquiries, and an exposure of the whole affair.
The last resource of this thorough-paced scoundrel was the road.
He chiefly affected the western suburbs and Hounslow Heath, and it
was in a robbery on that widespreading waste that he was captured.
He had obtained information that a servant, with a valise containing
a large sum in notes and gold, was to leave town and meet his
master at Windsor; and so set out to lie in wait for him. But he had
already been so active on the Heath that his face was too well
known, and he was recognised at Brentford by a traveller who had
suffered from him before. Following him into Hounslow Town, this
former victim suddenly raised an alarm and caused him to be seized.
Taken to the "Rose and Crown" inn, Parsons was recognised by the
landlord and others, as one who had for some time scoured the
Heath and committed robberies. His pistols were taken from him,
and he was committed to Newgate, and in the fulness of time tried,
convicted, and sentenced to death. The efforts of his family
connections were again used to save him from the gallows, and
themselves from the stigma of it; but his career was too notorious
for further leniency, and he was hanged at Tyburn on February 11th,
1751.
 WILLIAM PAGE
"There is always room on top" has long been the conclusive reply to
complaints of overcrowding in the professions. However many
duffers may already be struggling for a bare livelihood in them, there
yet remains an excellent career for the recruit with energy and new
methods. The profession of highwayman aptly illustrates the truth of
these remarks. It was shockingly over-crowded in the middle of the
eighteenth century, even though the duffers were generally caught
in their initial efforts and hanged; and really it is wonderful where all
the wealth came from, to keep such an army of "money-changers" in
funds.
William Page, who for twelve years carried on a flourishing
practice in the "Stand and Deliver!" profession, was one of those few
who lived very near the top of it. His name is not so familiar as those
of Du Vall, Hind, Maclean, or Turpin, but not always do the really
eminent come down to us with their eminence properly
acknowledged. He was born about 1730, the son of a bargeman to a
coal merchant at Hampton-on-Thames. The bargeman was
unfortunately drowned at Putney in 1740, and his widow was
reduced to eking out a meagre livelihood by the distilling of waters
from medicinal herbs. She is described as "a notable industrious
woman," and certainly it was not from her example that William
learned the haughty and offensive ways that would not permit him
long to keep any of the numerous situations he took, after leaving
the Charity School at Hampton, where he acquired what small
education he had. He started life as tapster's boy at the "Bell"
alehouse, in his native town, and thence changed to errand-boy in
the employment of "Mr. Mackenzie," apothecary. Soon his youthful
ambition took him to London, where he obtained a situation in the
printing-office of Woodfall, in Little Britain, who became in after-
years notorious as printer of the "Letters of Junius"; but "that
business being too great a confinement for his rambling temper, he
left it, and went footboy to Mr. Dalrymple, Scots Holland warehouse
in London."
He rapidly filled the situations of footman to one Mr. Hodges, in
Lincoln's Inn Fields; porter to a gentleman in Cork Street, and
footman to Mr. Macartney in Argyle Buildings. He then entered the
service of the Earl of Glencairn, but left that situation to become
valet to a certain Captain Jasper. Frequently discharged for "his
proud and haughty spirit, which would not brook orders from his
masters," and prevented him, on the other hand, being on good
terms with his fellow-servants, he at last found himself unable to
obtain another place. This was a sad time for William Page. In
service he had learned extravagant habits, the love of fine clothes
and the fascination of gambling; but his arrogant ways had brought
him low indeed.
"Being by such means as these extremely reduced in his
circumstances, without money, without friends, and without
character, he could think of no better method of supplying his wants,
and freeing himself from a servile dependency, than by turning
Collector on the Highway. This he imagined would not only take off
that badge of slavery, the livery he had always worn with regret, but
would set him on a level with gentlemen, a figure he was ever
ambitious of making."
His first steps were attended with some difficulty, for he laboured
under the disadvantage, at the moment of coming to this decision,
of having no money in his pockets; and to commence highwayman,
as to begin any other business or profession, it was necessary to
have a small capital, for preliminary expenses. But a little ingenuity
showed him the way. Pistols and a horse were the tools of his trade,
and pistols, of course, first. A servant of his acquaintance knew a
person who had a brace of pistols to sell, and Page took them, "to
show a friend on approval." He then hired a horse for deferred
payment, and with the pistols went out and immediately and
successfully robbed the Highgate coach. Thus, with the £4 he in this
manner obtained, he paid for the pistols and settled with the livery-
stable keeper for his horse-hire. In another day or two he had
touched the wayfaring public for a sum sufficient to purchase a
horse of his own; and thus commenced his twelve-years' spell of
highway adventure, in which, although he had many exciting
experiences, he was arrested only once before the final escapade
that brought him to the gallows.
An early freak of his was the robbing of his former master, Captain
Jasper, on Hounslow Heath. The Captain was crossing the ill-omened
place with a lady in a post-chaise, when Page rode up, bade the
postilion stop, and ordered the Captain to deliver.
"That may be, sir," retorted the Captain angrily, "but not yet," and,
pulling out a pistol, fired at him. His aim was not good, but he hit
somebody: none other, indeed, than his own postilion, who was
struck in the back, "and wounded very much."
Then said Page, "Consider, sir, what a rash action you have been
guilty of. You have killed this poor fellow, which I would not have
done for the world. And now, sir, I repeat my orders, and if you
refuse any longer to comply, I will actually fire upon you."
 WILLIAM PAGE.

The Captain then snapped his second pistol at him, but it missed
fire. Page then swore he would shoot the lady; intending to do
nothing of the kind, but only to alarm the Captain the more. But in
Captain Jasper our highwayman had met sterner stuff than common,
and the gallant soldier, the better to protect her, forthwith sat
himself in her lap. On Page continuing to declare he would shoot
him, the Captain leapt out of the chaise at him, and at that moment
Page fired, but with intention to miss, and the shot passed
harmlessly by. Again the Captain pulled the trigger of his pistol, and
again it missed fire.
Then Page declared his ultimatum: "You must now surrender, or I
absolutely will shoot you." Whereupon the Captain, having done all
he possibly could, delivered up his gold watch and ten or eleven
guineas. Page then demanded his sword, but he quite rightly, as a
soldier, demurred to such a humiliation.
"You may see by my cockade I am an officer, and I would sooner
part with my life and soul than with my sword," he bravely declared.
Page generously acknowledged his spirit. "I think myself," he said,
"thou art the bravest fellow that ever crossed these plains, but thou
art an obstinate fellow; and so, go about your business."
He introduced some interesting novelties into the well-worn
business. The chief of these was the distinctly bright idea of driving
from London in a phaeton with a pair of horses and at some lonely
spot disguising himself with a wig and another suit of clothes. Then,
saddling one of the horses and leaving the phaeton, he would
carefully emerge upon the high road and hold up coaches, post-
chaises, or solitary equestrians. This accomplished, he returned to
his phaeton, harnessed the horse again, resumed his former attire,
and drove back to town, like the gentleman of fashion and leisure he
pretended to be. One day, pursuing this highly successful
programme, he was nearly undone by the action of some countryfolk
who, finding an abandoned phaeton and one horse strangely left in
a coppice, went off with it. The simple people, making along the
road with this singular treasure-trove, were themselves followed by
some unlucky travellers whom Page had just robbed, and violently
denounced as confederates. Page was fully equal to the occasion.
Nearly stripping himself, and casting his clothes down a convenient
well, he returned to London in that plight and declared himself to
have been treated like the man in the Scriptures, who "fell among
thieves"; although it does not appear that the traveller in question
had a carriage. His phaeton had been stolen, and himself robbed
and left almost naked.
This precious story was fully believed, and the country people
themselves stood in some considerable danger. They were flung into
prison and would no doubt have been convicted had Page appeared
against them. This he, for obvious reasons, refused to do, and they
found themselves at liberty once more, resolved to leave any other
derelict carriages they might chance to see severely alone.
Page, in course of time, married a girl of his native town. She
could not long remain ignorant of his means of livelihood, and
earnestly begged him to leave the road and take to honest work.
Few, however, quitted the highway except for the "three-legged
mare" at Tyburn, and the one- or two-legged mares of other places;
and he held on his way. Now and again he would disappear for a
time, after some particularly audacious exploit, to reappear when
the excitement it had caused was over. On one of these occasions he
shipped to Barbados and Antigua, stayed there for seven or eight
months, and then returned to England, desperately in want of
money. The line of least resistance indicated the road once more.
His first exploit after this reappearance was the robbing of one Mr.
Cuffe, north of Barnet. The traveller, being driven along the road
alone and unarmed in a post-chaise, had no choice but to surrender
his purse, and held it out from the window at arm's length. But
Page's horse, not being used to this kind of business, shied violently,
and Page thereupon ordered the postilion to dismount and hand it
him, which he did, and he then gracefully and at leisure retired.
On his return to town, leading this high-mettled horse down
Highgate Hill, Page was followed by three men on horseback, who,
having heard of this robbery down the road, suspected he might be
the man. They immediately planned how they were to take him, and
then, one of them riding quietly up, said, "Sir, I have often walked
my horse up Highgate Hill, but never down; but since you do, I will
also, and bear you company."
 Page readily agreed, without the least suspicion of any design
against him, and so they entered into a very friendly conversation.
After walking in this manner some little distance, the gentleman
finding a fit opportunity, keeping a little behind, suddenly laid hold of
his arms and pinioned them so tightly behind him that he was not
able to stir; seeing which, the other two, then on the opposite side
of the road, crossed over and secured him beyond any possibility of
escape. They found in his pockets four loaded pistols, a powder-
horn, and some bullets, a crape mask, and a curious and ingenious
map himself had drawn, showing all the main roads and cross roads
for twenty miles round London.
They then took him before a Justice of the Peace at Highgate,
who put many searching questions, without gaining any information.
He was, however, committed to Clerkenwell Bridewell, and was
afterwards examined by none other than Henry Fielding, magistrate
and novelist. Sent from the Old Bailey to stand his trial at Hertford
Assizes, he was acquitted for lack of exact evidence, although every
one was fully satisfied of his guilt, for, however strange the times,
they were not so strange that honest gentlemen carried such a
compromising collection of things about with them on the roads.
His narrow escape did not disturb him, and he was soon again on
his lawless prowls. On Hounslow Heath he robbed a Captain of one
of the Guards regiments, and was pursued into Hounslow town by
that officer, shouting "Highwayman!" after him. No one took any
notice. Page got clear away, and afterwards boasted of having, the
following night at a theatre in London, sat next the officer, who did
not recognise him.
An interlude followed in the activities of our high-spirited
highwayman. He and an old acquaintance struck up a more intimate
friendship over the tables of billiard-rooms in London, and there they
entered into an alliance, with the object of rooking frequenters of
those places. But their returns were small and precarious, and did
not even remotely compare with the rich harvest to be gathered on
the road, to which he accordingly returned.
 It was Page's ill-fortune to meet with several plucky travellers,
who, like Captain Jasper, would not tamely submit to be robbed, and
resisted by force of arms. Among them was Lord Downe, whose
post-chaise he, with a companion, one day stopped at Barnet.
Presenting his pistol, he issued the customary orders, but, to his
surprise, Lord Downe himself drew a pistol, and discharged it with
such excellent aim, that Page was shot in the body, and bled very
copiously. His companion's horse, alarmed at the shot, grew restive,
and thus his friend was for a while unable to come to his aid. Page,
however, again advanced to the attack; but my lord was ready with
another pistol, and so the highwaymen thought it best to make off.
They hurried to London, and Page sought a doctor, who found the
wound so dangerous, that he refused to treat him without
consultation. The other doctor, immediately on arriving, recognised
Page, and asked him how he came by the wound; to which Page
replied, that he had received it in a duel he had just fought.
"I will extract the ball," replied the doctor; "but," he added
significantly, "I do not wish to see your face again, for I believe you
fought that duel near Barnet."
Shortly after his recovery from this untoward incident, he and one
ally, Darwell, by name, an old schoolfellow, waiting upon chance on
Shooter's Hill, met two post-chaises, in one of which was a
"supercargo" belonging to the East India Company, and in the other
a person, who is simply described as a "gentleman."
Page's accomplice opened the encounter by firing a pistol, to
which the supercargo replied in like manner; but with a better aim,
for the bullet tore away a portion of his coat, under the armpit. A
second shot from the highwayman was also ineffective. Then Page
rode up and attacked the other chaise. A desperate fusillade
followed; but the only damage done was that Page's horse was
slightly wounded. At last, the post-chaise travellers having expended
all their ammunition, the two highwaymen compelled them to alight,
and the postilions to dismount; and then, having bound the hands of
all of them with rope, they ordered these unfortunate persons, on
peril of their lives, to remain on that spot for one hour. They then
returned to the chaises, removed the travelling trunks, and, carrying
them off on horseback, hid them securely.
Then they hastened back to London. The next morning, in two
chaises, they returned to the spot, and in security brought back the
trunks, which contained, not only a large amount of money, but a
mass of important documents belonging to the East India Company.
A reward of forty guineas was offered, by advertisement in the
newspapers of the time, for the return of the documents, "and no
questions asked." The advertisers themselves, by so doing, risked a
fine of £50 for compounding a felony; but, in any case, the reward
was never claimed, although Page carefully returned the papers
anonymously.
The fact which at last cut the knot of William Page's existence was
the robbing of Captain Farrington in 1757, on Blackheath. Among
other things the Captain was compelled to render to this Cæsar of
the roads was a gold repeater watch. Hotly pursued, Page gave the
hue-and-cry a long chase for it, and finally, arriving at Richmond,
had himself and his exhausted horse ferried across to Twickenham.
Soon after, finding the south of England ringing uncomfortably
with the fame of his doings, he took ship for Scotland, but landed at
Scarborough, where, at the fashionable spa, he gambled heavily and
strutted awhile as a man of considerable fortune. But he must have
been at last really alarmed and prepared to consider turning over a
new leaf, for he went north to see his former master, the Earl of
Glencairn, who, he thought, would be able to recommend him to
employment in the plantations. The Earl, however, received him
coldly, and he came south again, to resume his chosen profession, in
company with Darwell, whom he had by constant alternate threats
and persuasions seduced from the reformed life he was leading and
the respectable situation he held, to take up again this hazardous
calling.
 Together they scoured the road to Tonbridge, Darwell forming, as
it were, a rearguard. Page was pursued beyond Sevenoaks by five
mounted men armed with pistols, and a blunderbuss, who dashed
past Darwell, and after a struggle seized his leader, who presently
escaped again. In their return, disappointed, they made a prisoner
of Darwell, who, suspecting something of the kind would happen,
had already thrown away his pistols. In spite of his indignant
protestations that he was a private gentleman, and would not
endure such an outrage, he was searched and a part of Captain
Farrington's watch was found upon him, with the maker's name and
most of the distinguishing marks more or less carefully obliterated.
Questioned closely, he declared he had picked it up upon the road.
As for the highwayman they had just now nearly captured, he knew
nothing of him: had never set eyes on him before.
But, in spite of these denials, Darwell was taken off in custody and
examined before a magistrate, who so plied him with questions,
threats of what would happen to him if he continued obstinate, and
promises of clemency if he would make discovery of his companion,
that he at last turned King's evidence. During the interval, he was
lodged in Maidstone gaol.
A fortnight later, Page was arrested in one of their old haunts in
London, the "Golden Lion," near Grosvenor Square. He was at first
taken to Newgate, but afterwards remitted to Maidstone, and tried
there for the robbery of Captain Farrington. Convicted and sentenced
to death, he was hanged on Penenden Heath, April 6th, 1758.
 ISAAC DARKIN, ALIAS DUMAS
Isaac Darkin was the son of a cork-cutter in Eastcheap, and was born
about 1740; too late to appear in the stirring pages of Alexander
Smith or Charles Johnson, in which he would have made, we may be
sure, an admired figure. All those who knew him, on the road or in
the domestic circle, agreed that he was a handsome fellow; and
travellers, in particular, noticed his taking ways. These were first
displayed in 1758, when he robbed Captain Cockburn near
Chelmsford. No less taking, in their own especial way, were the
police of the neighbourhood in that time, for they speedily
apprehended Isaac, and lodged him in Springfield gaol. He was duly
arraigned at the next assizes, and no fewer than eight indictments
were then preferred against him. He pleaded guilty to the robbing of
Captain Cockburn, but not guilty on the other counts; and was, after
a patient trial, found guilty on the first and acquitted on the others.
He was then sentenced to death, but was eventually respited on
account of his youth, and finally pardoned on condition that he
enlisted in the 48th Regiment of foot, then serving in the West
Indies, at Antigua. Drafted with others aboard a ship lying in the
lower reaches of the Thames, presently to set sail for that distant
shore, he effected his escape, almost at the moment of up-anchor,
by dint of bribing the captain of a merchant vessel lying alongside,
to whom he promised so much as a hundred pounds to help him
out. He was smuggled aboard the merchantman, and so cunningly
disguised that when a search-party, suspecting his whereabouts,
boarded the ship, and searched it, even to the hold, they did not
recognise him in a particularly rough and dirty sailor who was
swearing nautical oaths among the ship's company on deck. So the
transport-vessel sailed without him, and he, assuming the name of
Dumas, rioted all through the West of England, robbing wealthy
travellers and gaily spending his takings on what he loved best: fine
clothes and fine ladies. He was so attentive to business that he
speedily made a name for himself, the name of a daring votary of
the high toby. This reputation rendered it politic on his part to enlist
in the Navy, so that in case of being arrested for highway robbery,
he could prove himself to have a respectable occupation, that would
help to discredit the charge of being a highwayman.
He soon became a valued recruit, and was promoted to
midshipman; and it is quite likely that if he had been sent on active
service he would have distinguished himself in a more reputable
career than that in which he was so soon to die. But his duties kept
him for considerable periods in port, and he seems to have had
ample leave from them; for we find him hovering near Bath and
gaily robbing the wealthy real or imagined invalids going to, or
returning from, the waters.
On the evening of June 22nd, 1760, he fell in with Lord Percival,
travelling by post-chaise over Clarken Down, near Bath, and robbed
him of twelve, thirteen, or fourteen guineas—my lord could not
positively swear to the exact amount. He then made off in the
gathering twilight, and galloped across country, to Salisbury Plain
and the little village of Upavon, where he was arrested in a rustic
alehouse, and sent thence to Salisbury gaol. At his trial he
indignantly denied being a highwayman, or that he was an
Englishman. He declared his name was Dumas, that he had lately
come from Guadaloupe, where he had taken a part in the late
military operations; and said that the so-styled "suspicious
behaviour" and damaging admissions he was charged with, when
arrested at the inn, were merely the perplexities of a foreigner, when
suddenly confronted by hostile strangers.
This special pleading did not greatly deceive judge or jury, but the
prosecution broke down upon a technical detail, and Darkin was
acquitted; not, however, without an affecting address to the prisoner
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