Wednesday, 7 November 2012

8th November 1786


Drizzle. A Mrs Wilcox aged 78, who for some time resided in Buxton, made it her general rule, every night to go around her garden, in order to discover if possible whether any thief was lurking about them. She would never suffer any person to accompany her but taking a loaded gun over a shoulder with a lanthorn in her hand, attended by a mastiff, the constant companion of her mistress in these nocturnal visits. She happened after a usual round in her grounds to be disturbed in her sleep, one morning by some thieves who had set a ladder against her chamber window for the purpose of robbing her: but she was walking out of her sleep at the time. Immediately jumped out of bed and seized a musket which she kept loaded by her bedside flung open the casement window and to her astonishment found one man advanced up the ladder and others prepared to ascend. She presented her piece and said “We you break in upon my peaceful slumbers and disturb my repose at this late hour. Be gone or I’ll blow your brains out” The thieves withdrew into the night muttering

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