like that fellow.  Will you let me look at the pistol if you have it with you.”—­“O yes, look at it if you like.  I never fired a pistol in my life; however, should I be stopped, I think I could manage it.”  The grocer took the pistol; drew the charge; and found, to the great surprise of the farmer, it was only loaded with horse-dung, and a large bullet at the top.  “I thought he was a rascal, and this confirms it.” said the grocer.  “Here is evidently a plot; now leave your money with me; we will load this pistol properly, and you can, if you like, proceed on your journey:  it may be the means of detecting some one.”

The farmer left his money in the hands of the grocer; went back to the inn; mounted his horse, and rode off on his journey.  About a mile from Dunmow, he was stopped by a fellow, well mounted, who instantly demanded his money.  “I have not got any,” replied the farmer, “but I have a pistol, with which, if you do not instantly allow me to pass on my way home, I will blow your brains out.”  “You have got money—­and as to the pistol, you may blow away—­blow away, my fine fellow,” said the chuckling highwayman.  The farmer instantly fired, and his assailant fell off his horse to the ground with a groan.  The farmer galloped back to the inn, and inquired of the hostler where his master was.  “He has been gone out, on horseback, about a quarter of an hour,” the hostler replied.  “Well, I will tell you what,” said the farmer, “you may find your master, with his brains blown out, in the road,” describing the place where he had had the encounter with the innkeeper.

From this time a number of persons resident in and about Thaxted and Dunmow, left their places of abode, which circumstance created some surprise among the remaining inhabitants; but it was afterwards ascertained they formed the desperate gang that had so long and successfully robbed, and sometimes murdered, their unsuspecting neighbours and the different travellers who had occasion to pass the roads on which these marauders were stationed.

J.W.B.

* * * * *

MANNERS & CUSTOMS OF ALL NATIONS.

(For the Mirror.)

WISE MEN OF GOTHAM.

The village of Gotham, about seven miles from Nottingham, has been rendered noted by the common proverb of “The Wise Men of Gotham.”  It is observable that a custom has prevailed among many nations of stigmatizing the inhabitants of some particular spot as remarkable for stupidity.  This opprobrious district among the Asiatics was Phrygia.  Among the Thracians, Abdera; among the Greeks, Boeotia; in England it is Gotham.  Of the Gothamites ironically called The Wise Men of Gotham, many ridiculous stories are traditionally told, particularly, that often having heard the cuckoo but never seen her, they hedged in a bush from whence her note seemed to proceed, so that being confined within so small a compass, they might at length satisfy their curiosity; and at a place called Court Hill, in this parish, is a bush called Cuckoo Bush.