3
The Newmarket mail coach was stopped and robbed,
the mail bags being carried off which were destined to
reach Harlow, Beccles, &c. and a handsome reward was
offered at the time by the Post Office, for the highway-
man's apprehension, and a full description given of
the culprit.
'I here is reason to believe that Matthew Keys, was
the attacking party spoken of in the following verses,
that the passengers on the old Cambridge Coach had a
terrible fright as the paper describes " A true account
of a barbarous and horrible attack upon the body of
the Cambridge Coach, in Epping Forest,"
This Matthew Keys—of Billericay—was a regular
frequenter on those solitary highways, and also the
roads leading to Hackney.
Considering the desperate frays the thickets of Ep-
ping have witnessed, it must give relief to coaching,
riding, driving or walking parties, that highwaymen are
a thing of the past, and that those once dangerous
roads, are now safer than the streets of London.
H. BURDON.