A CHEAP RIDE.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3223, 28 October 1881, Page 4

A CHEAP 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 dealer 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 ; but his predilection for horses and the turf occasioned him to quit that situation. At a town in Bedfordshire, some years ago, he waa, according to the turf phrase, quite broke down. It traa in harvest time, the week before Richmond races, near which vtlace he was born, and to reach there in ..time ..he hit.on the following expedient. He ipplied to a blacksmith of his acquaintance *o stamp on a padlock the words 'Richmond Inol,' which, with a chain, was fixed to one if his legs, and he composedly went into a orhfieM to sleep. As he expected, he was soon apprehended, and taken before a -jmgietrate, who, after some deliberation, >rdere(l two constables to guard him in a .xrriage to Richmond, no time having to ie lost, Kilburn saying he had not been tried, and hoping they would not let him !;i.v till another aseize. The constables, on arrival at the gaol, accosted the keeper with. ' do you know this man ?' ' Yes, very well; its Kilburn. I have known him many years.' 'We suppose he has broke out of pour gaol, as he has a chain and padlock with your mark ; is not he a prisoner ?' ' A prisoner! I never heard any harm of him in ray life. , ' Nor,' says Kilburn, • have these gentlemen, sir; they have been so good as to bring me home out of Bedfordshire, and I will not give them any furthur trouble. I have got the key of the padlock, and I'll not trouble them to unlock it. I thank them for their good usage.' The distance he thus travelled was 170 miles.'— G. Holdeu Pike in Golden Hours.