* * * * *
In those days there were lively happenings. Dick Turpin on his bonny
Black Bess frightened travelers on Hounslow Heath, made his famous
ride from London to York, in twenty-four hours, and, one gray day in
November of 1714, died at Tyburn, dressed in his gayest attire with a
rose at his button hole. Nor would the crowd allow his body to be given
to the surgeons, for, seeing it taken from the gallows, they rescued
it, carried it through the town in triumph, then buried it in a deep
grave that night.
Claude Duval, too, was a popular hero, the pink of politeness, the
gentleman thief it was an honor to be robbed by. He would stop a coach
to dance a Sarabandi with the lady, and then rob her escort. He
Taught the wild Arabs of the road
To rob in a more gentle mode;
Take prizes more obligingly than those
Who never had been bred =filous=;
And how to hang in a more graceful fashion
Than e’er was known before to the dull English nation.
* * * * *
There was a period of insane speculation commencing with the South Sea
Company originated by Harley, Earl of Oxford, with a view to restore
public credit. Visions of ingots danced before everyone’s eyes, and
stock in any scheme rose rapidly. One bright genius, forerunner of
a Ponzi, announced the formation of a company “for carrying on an
undertaking of great advantage, but nobody to know what it is.” The
prospectus announced that it required a capital of a half million
pounds, of 5,000 shares of a hundred pounds each with a deposit of two
pounds on application. Each subscriber paying his initial deposit would
be entitled to a hundred pounds per annum per share. The following
morning after the prospectus had gone forth, he opened his office in
Cornhill, and when he closed that day at three, he was the winner of
two thousand pounds clear, so did not re-open his office, nor stay in
the country.
In the papers of the period are to be found advertisements and notices,
all kinds of mad money-making propositions, as filed at the Council
Chamber Whitehall. To name a few:
Petition for a wheel for perpetual motion.