Note 140 — Chapter IV · THE STRAND.

Trivia; or the Art of Walking the Streets of London, book iii. Of a similar, and more perplexing facetiousness was the trick of extracting wigs out of hackney coaches. "The thieves," says the Weekly Journal (March 30, 1717), "have got such a villanous way now of robbing gentlemen, that they cut holes through the backs of hackney coaches, and take away their wigs, or fine head-dresses of gentlewomen; so a gentleman was served last Sunday in Tooley Street, and another but last Tuesday in Fenchurch Street; wherefore this may serve as a caution to gentlemen and gentlewomen that ride single in the night-time, to sit on the fore-seat, which will prevent that way of robbing."—Malcolm's Anecdotes of the Manners and Customs of London during the Eighteenth Century, second edit., vol. i., p. 104.