. 134

HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

chap, finest houses in Saint James’s Square, was taken for Tal-lard. On the day of the public entry, all the streets fromTower Hill to Pall Mall were crowded with gazers whoadmired the painting and gilding of his Excellency’s car-riages , the surpassing beauty of his horses, and the mul-titude of his running footmen, dressed in gorgeous liveriesof scarlet and gold lace. The Ambassador was graciouslyreceived at Kensington, and was invited to accompanyNcwmnr- William to Newmarket, where the largest and mosti'ngj iiie splendid Spring Meeting ever known was about to as-

insecure

suto of semble. The attraction must be supposed to have been

the roads.

great: for the risks of the journey were not trifling. Thepeace had, all over Europe, and nowhere more than inEngland, turned crowds of old soldiers into marauders. *Several aristocratical equipages had been attacked even inHyde Park. Every newspaper contained stories of trav-ellers stripped, bound and flung into ditches. One daythe Bristol mail was robbed; another day the Dover coach;then the Norwich waggon. On Hounslow Heath a com-pany of horsemen, with masks on their faces, waited forthe great people who had been to pay their court to the

* George Psalmanazar’s account of the state of the south of Tranceat this timo is curious. On the high road near Lyons lie frequentlypassed corpses fastened to posts. “These,” he says, “were the bodiesof highwaymen, or rather of soldiers, sailors, mariners, and even galleyslaves, disbanded after the peace of Reswick, who, having neither homenor occupation, used to infest the roads in troops, plunder towns andvillages, and, when taken, were hanged at the county town by dozens,or even scores sometimes, after which their bodies were thus exposedalong the highway in terrorem .”