“Dick Turpin never had Bess shoed where this girl I’m told rolls her eyes at the Gok Wan acolytes”
So… what do we know about Dick Turpin?
The A to Z of HMHB
The A to Z of HMHB
“Dick Turpin never had Bess shoed where this girl I’m told rolls her eyes at the Gok Wan acolytes”
So… what do we know about Dick Turpin?
Mr Larrington
Many years ago I was cycling home after an evening shift, northbound up the old A11 and just past the Green Man roundabout at the top of the Leytonstone High Road. From my left shot a figure riding a black horse, wearing a long cloak and tri-corned hat. In total silence he galloped across the road and onto the drive of a house opposite, where he disappeared from view down the passage at the side of the house.
A few weeks later I related this to a silly hippy friend who informed my that I had seen Dick Turpin’s ghost though as I don’t believe in ghosties I found it difficult to agree…
19 August 2014
EXXO
Worth copying from the ‘Bess’ thread, methinks, where 75% of the info is about Dick ‘Dastardly’ Turpin, rather than about his mount.
Vendor of Quack Nostrums:
Dick Turpin never had Bess shoed anywhere because the story is a romanticised pile of horse manure, deriving from a novel written years after Turpin’s demise. The facts are basically; horse thief living above his means is arrested on suspicion. Gives false name as he is wanted for previous. Writes to his brother for assistance. Brother refuses to pay postage so letter returned to sorting depot (or eighteenth century equivalent). Ex-teacher recognises handwriting and shops him to the Law. ( Don’t you just hate it when that happens). Turpin is hung. Myths are: he owned a horse called Black Bess. He was a highwayman. He rode from London to York in under a day. Just about everything else we think we know about him. Sorry.
Rubber Faced Irritant:
I got married in St George’s Church in York and Dick Turpin’s grave is in the background to our wedding photos. Doesn’t look as though there was room for Bess. Incidentally, the Castle Museum in York is a grand day out and you don’t need to take a device for keeping drinks hot (or cold). The condemned person’s cell is where Turpin (and many others) spent their last night. Sitting in there always gave me the willies.
Dr Desperate:
Quite so, @Vendor, though it was his brother-in-law Pompadour Rivernall to whom he wrote from the gaol in York Castle. He’d been transferred there from the House of Correction in Beverley, where he was being held on charges of shooting another man’s cock in the street (oh come on now). However, he must have had a horse called Bess, because here’s a picture of her being shod, and the engraving doesn’t lie.
19 August 2014
acidic regulator
@@Exxo/Dr Desperate — the headline “Dick held for shooting cock” might have sold a few newspapers.
19 August 2014
dirk hofman
http://www.stand_and_deliver.org/highwaymen/dick_turpin.htm
19 August 2014
Featureless tv producer steve
Ignorant American here. A couple of weeks ago, I was watching an episode of the game show “Jeopardy!” when the question, or rather the answer, was something along the lines of “This legendary outlaw rode through 19-century England on his horse Bess”.
Thanks (solely thanks, in fact) to my discovering HMHB a couple of years ago, I was able to smugly yell “Dick Turpin! Dick Turpin, you ignorant Americans!” at my speechless and clueless countrymen on the tv, amongst whom I would have been counted as recently as 2012.
I’ve been a diehard, fanatical, this-is-as-close-as-I-get-to-religion fan of The Who and Pete Townshend since 1982, but I’ve learned more about England (and English places, people, and history) in two years of being an HMHB fan than I learned in 30+ years of being a Who fan. I’m quite sure His Peteness never mentioned either Dick Turpin or Bess in any of his songs.
22 August 2014
Alice Van der meer
Funny how Dick should pop up (as it were). I have Turpins from Hempstead in Essex on both sides of my family, which probably explains the thing I have for frilly shirts and pointing my weapon at people. Mind you, I can hardly ride from London to Yorkshire pudding, never mind York, so maybe not…
25 August 2014
GOK WAN ACOLYTE
Guessing that few users of this site have primary school age children, cos everything you need to know about Dick Turpin (and Bess) can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYU-vSh7ORA
6 April 2017
jODRELL BANKSY
Played by Terence Stamp in a series of pantomime moustaches, in the circus scene from Far From the Madding Crowd.
4 July 2017
dr desperate
Sid James played the dual rôle of Big Dick Turpin and Reverend Flasher in ‘Carry On Dick’ (tagline “Dick Turpin carries on with his flintlock cocked”).
4 July 2017