Honestly, the weather is feckin' horrible...it's still cold enough for Himself to be lighting the range every evening...we'd be getting frostbite otherwise...well, I would 'cos I feel the cold at the best of times.
I found a Highwayman the other day...no, he wasn't cantering down our road on a big Black horse while swinging a cutlass over his head...he is on a tree I'm researching, but I can't find out anything about him...other than he was hanged for his misdeeds, so perhaps he was a common sort of a Highwayman who hasn't merited a mention anywhere in the history books...
Anyway I've rather gone off smugglers and robbers on horse-back after reading part of a history about a notorious gang of smugglers who weren't above murdering anyone who was in their way...there was an instance when a section of this particular gang threw one chap down a well and then pelted him with rocks...his friend was buried alive in a fox earth...after having been beaten up beforehand.
Most of that gang were brought to justice and ended up being hanged...two were told they'd be hung in a gibbet...one of them is reported to have fainted when a chap came along to measure him for the gibbet chains...most of the rest were sent for anatomical dissection...considered to be a great punishment in itself because the thinking was your body had to be whole for the Last Day of Judgement...
They smuggled tea...loose-leaf tea obviously...it was carried in oil-skin bags slung over their horses backs and came into England via boats which could creep into the many inlets along the coast without being seen by the Customs men or Militia.
Probably quite an exciting life...providing you didn't get caught.
A Couple Of Treasured Memories...
Needing some advice please
