2-704-280 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

John Gilpin on his bolting horse being chased by passers-by, 1878, (c1918). Riders shout 'Stop thief! Stop thief! A Highwayman!', and set off in pursuit, wrongly assuming that as Gilpin is being chased by the postboy, he must be a criminal. A signpost points to Ware in Hertfordshire. John Gilpin was the subject of a comic ballad of 1782 by William Cowper entitled "The Diverting History of John Gilpin". The ballad, based on real-life character, describes how, on a journey to Edmonton (north in London), Gilpin, a draper, became separated from his wife and children after losing control of his horse, and ended up in the town of Ware, ten miles away from his intended destination. From "The Diverting History of John Gilpin", by William Cowper. [Frederick Warne and Co., London & New York, c1918]