A letter to Mr. C. D. in London.

    Dear Sir,

Amongst the odd accidents which you know have happened to me in the course of a very unsettled life, I don’t know any which hath been more extraordinary or surprising than one I met with in going down to my own house when I left you last in town.  You cannot but have heard of the Waltham Blacks, as they are called, a set of whimsical merry fellows, that are so mad to run the greatest hazards for the sake of a haunch of venison, and passing a jolly evening together.

For my part, though the stories told of these people had reached my ears, yet I confess I took most of them for fables, and I thought that if there was truth in any of them it was much exaggerated.  But experience (the mistress of fools) has taught me the contrary, by the adventure I am going to relate to you, which though it ended well enough at last, I confess at first put me a good deal out of humour.  To begin, then; my horse got a stone in his foot, and therewith went so lame just as I entered the forest, that I really thought his shoulder slipped.  Finding it however impossible to get him along, I was even glad to take up at a little blind alehouse which I perceived had a yard and a stable behind it.

The man of the house received me very civilly, but when he perceived my horse was so lame as scarce to be able to stir a step, I observed he grew uneasy.  I asked him whether I could lodge there that night, he told me no, he had no room, I desired him, then, to put something to my horse’s foot, and let me sit up all night; for I was resolved not to spoil a horse which cost me twenty guineas by riding him in such a condition in which he was at present.  The man made me no answer, and I proposed the same questions to the wife.  She dealt more roughly and freely with me, and told me that truly I neither could, nor should stay there, and was for hurrying her husband to get my horse out.  However, on putting a crown into her hand and promising another for my lodging, she began to consider a little; and at last told me that there was indeed a little bed above stairs, on which she should order a clean pair of sheets to be put, for she was persuaded I was more of a gentleman than to take any notice of what I saw passed there.

This made me more uneasy than I was before.  I concluded now I was got amongst a den of highwaymen, and expected nothing less than to be robbed and my throat cut.  However, finding there was no remedy, I even set myself down and endeavoured to be as easy as I could.  By this time it was very dark, and I heard three or four horsemen alight and lead their horses into the yard.  As the men returned and were coming into the room where I was, I overheard my landlord say, Indeed, brother, you need not be uneasy, I am positive the gentleman’s a man of honour, to which I heard another voice reply, What could our death do to any stranger?  Faith, I don’t