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The Eighteenth Century
Pickpockets and Highwaymen
This book was first published in 1967. It is a tale of adventure set against the London underworld of he eighteenth century.
Smith is a twelve-year-old pickpocket. He steals something from an old gentleman and then he hears footsteps. He hides in a doorway -- and sees the old gentleman murdered by two men dressed in brown. They search the old gentleman but they do not find what they are looking for. Then they are joined by a third person, a man with a wooden leg and tell him, "Nothing. Nothing, your honour."
Later Smith looks at what he has stolen. What the old gentleman has died for. It is a document but Smith is not really any wiser because he cannot read. Smith is sure that no one has seen him but he is wrong and the men in brown are set on his trail. From then on Smith's life is in danger as he tries to elude his pursuers and find out what is in the document. At one point he is accused of murdering the old gentleman himself and flung into Newgate Gaol awaiting trial and almost certainly the gallows at Tyburn. Then, after escaping, he finds himself racing against time to save a blind man from a highwayman.
It is often said that, strictly speaking, Leon Garfield's novels are not strictly historical. Certainly in this case the story comes first and there is not the detailed background of the true historical novel. But in Smith there is still plenty which sets the book firmly in the eighteenth century. We need look no further than the very first paragraph.
He was called Smith and was twelve years old. Which, in itself, was a marvel; for it seemed as if the smallpox, the consumption, brain-fever, gaol-fever and even the hangman's rope had given him a wide berth for fear of catching something.
Then there is the detailed description of Newgate with the condemned highwayman Dick Mulrone being treated as a celebrity and paying court with crowds of visitors every day. Also further references to Tyburn and Mulrone being bottled i.e. after being hanged his body would be given to the surgeons.
And Mulrone is not the only highwayman in the book. Lord Tom is a great friend of Smith's, and something of a hero to him. Lord Tom's particular area is Finchley Common and we are given details of how he operates and of the inn which he uses as a base.
This edition comes with a note at the back in which it is pointed out that the blind magistrate who befriends Smith is actually based on Sir Henry Fielding's half brother, the blind reforming magistrate, Sir John Fielding.
Also of particular interest, the shopkeeper whom Smith asked to teach him to read, was John Newbery, the pioneer publisher of children's books.
An exciting story with a very definite eighteenth century flavour.
12+