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.
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I love listening to some of your stories. I have always wanted to visit Ireland as that is where my great grandmother was from...way different than the US I'm sure.
Home again & all tucked up & feeling somewhat better. It is great to be home again reading your exciting stories. It sounds as if Ireland is experiencing the wet, cold weather we encountered in Scotland. But then again, anywhere so beautiful needs to be nourished by copious amounts of rain & even bits of winter’s left over snow. We didn’t see or hear of any smugglers but the Cairngorms’’ are a bit steep to be hauling contraband from the coast. Snails, I can take or leave but I will definitely deal with any who eat our plants. Really do not want to eat them though.
I don’t like slugs, we had huge slugs in Swindon, I used to gather them at dusk & take them walk- a bouts but probably like snails they returned. I did have a moment though, I read about the sensual & erotic love live of slugs – honestly and suddenly they were creatures with a love live, much harder to view as an enemy. Even so, I don’t want to share my produce with them. Mind where you tread! Love Margaret x
What a waste of good water chucking the poor man down a well. Those gibbet things are horrible, have you seen the one at Caxton, Cambridgeshire?
I wonder if there is a vicious violent streak in the human race that lurks deep down.
Have you heard about the brass bull invented by a Roman I think. The victim was placed inside and fire lit underneath the bull. As the bull heated up the victim writhed and screamed which made the bull look alive. The anguished cries sounded like a bellowing bull.
Eventually, the inventor ended his life as a victim of the bull.
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