The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-03-18 00:00:00

"THE MODERN DICK TURPIN."

In London, on Tuesday, Horace Wright, whose
strange freaks in the country have earned for him the
name of the "Modern Hick Turpin," was brought
b. fore the Lord Mayor at the Mansion House, charged
with stealing .£3O belonging to Mr. Samuel Cropper, of
TO, Cheapside, with which sum he had been entrusted
to pay a bill. Sergeant Bull deposed that on the 22nd
of February the prosecutor, Mr. Cropp, r, gave infor-
mation of the robbery to the police, and that he (witness)
went to Cambridge, and found the prisoner in custody of
the chief constable. He told him he was a detective
officer, and that he would be charged with stealing two
Bank of England notes for £2O and £lO, belonging to
Mr. Cropper. The prisoner replied that that was cor-
rect, and he was very sorry for what he had done. He
added, "If I had £1.0,000 I would give all of it to him;
he was exceedingly kind an good to me, and I have
been very ungrateful. When I see a horse with •
saddle on I must be there if I have got money. I think
I am mad." Upon him one halfpenny was found. The
Lord Mayor, owing to the unavoidable absence of the
prosecutor, remanded the prisoner for a week.

The above cane furniehea the Pall Mall Gaulle with
a theme for the following observations
it seems that there is an aspirant to the honours won by
Dick turpin the famous highwayman. Mr. Horace Wright,
who describes himself as a medical student, and has already
distinguished himself by one or two highway robberies con-
ducted in the approved fashion, name!), on horseback with
a mask and pistol, was arrested on Friday night in a
labourer's cottage, at Castle Camps, Cambridgeshire, on a
charge of robbery. Mr. Wright had taken lodgings he this
secluded village, which was perhaps selected by him as a
retreat owing to its being in the neighbourhood of the
real Trek Tornio's early horns. That gentleman according
to the Newgate Calendar, was born at Thatted, in
FMCS, no great distance from Castle Camps; and It was
owing to his imprudently writing to his brother in that
county, when he was imprisoned under the name of dons
Palmer In York Castle, for horse-ate ,Ung, roi nesting that a
witness might be sent from London to give him a character,
that his real name was discovered The letter was returned
unopened to the post-office because the brother would not
pay the postage of It ; it was then accidentally seen by Mr.
Smith, a schoolmaster, who had taught Turista to write,
1 and so knew lii, hand. Mr. Smith was despatched by the
E.sex magistrates to York, and immediately selected his
former pupil from all the ether prisoners in the Castle.
The consequences were rather serious for poor Turpin,
as it led to his being tried for murder and hanged. ilia
death was, however, as beautiful as his life, for not many
days before hie execution he purchased "a new fustian frock
and a pair of pumps, In oVer to wear them at the time of
his death ; " and on the day before his execution he hired five
poor men at ton shillings each to follow the cart as mourners
lie gave hatbands and gloves to several persons, and also
left a ring and other articles to a married lady In Lincoln-
shire with whom he had been acquainted. If Mr. Wright's
a.tempts to walk In the footsteps of this truly great man
should unhappily conduct him also to the gallows, let us
hope his last hours will be marked by a similar liberality.