A REMARKABLE RIDE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume III, Issue 539, 20 January 1882, Page 2

A REMARKABLE RIDE.

One of the most remarkable rides ever undertaken in a post chaise came off in the history of John Kilburn, a sporting man, who died in 1797. According to the contemporary account, “ he had undergone various vicissitudes ' " in life; had been a horse-stealer of some eminence, and in that line travelled into France and other foreign ...... parts. Returning to England poor, he entered into several militias,' and was at one time a sergeant in the Huntingdonshire Yeomanry; but his predilection for horses and the turf occasioned him to quit that situation. At a town in Bedfordshire, some years ago, he was, accord- 1 ing to the turf phrase, quite broke down. It was in harvest time, the - week before Richmond races, near which place he was born, and to reach there in time he hit on the following expedient: —He applied to a black- ; smith of his acquaintance to stamp on . a padlock the words ‘ Richmond Gaol,’ which, with a chain, was fixed to one of * his legs, and he composedly went into a cornfield to sleep. As he expected, he was soon apprehended, and taken before a magistrate, who, after some deliberation, ordered two constables to guard him in a carriage to Richmond, no time having to be lost, Kilburn saying he had not been tried, and hop- ~ ing they would not let him lie till i another assize. The constables, on their arrival at the gaol, accosted the keeper with, ‘ Sir, do you know this J man?’ ‘Yes, very well, 'tis Kilburn. I have known him many years.’ ‘We . suppose he has broken out of your gaol, as he has a chain and padlock with 1 your mark; is he not a prisoner?’ ‘A > ■■■■ prisoner! I never heard any harm of 1 1 him in my life.’ * Nor,’ says Kilburn, 5 ‘have these gentlemen, sir; they have , been so good as to bring me home out of Bedfordshire, and I will not give ? them any further trouble. I have got r i the key of the padlock, and I’ll not r trouble them to unlock it. I thank ' them for their good usage.” The distance he had thus travelled was about 170 miles.”