Black Bess Border Morris
I
In the mid Eighteenth Century, travellers and coaches going north of London were in danger
of being accosted by a freelance road-tax collector named Richard Turpin, known popularly
of course as “Dick Turpin the Dreaded Highwayman”.
Legends tend to accrue to notorious villains, and it was believed that Turpin would
remove himself from the crime scene by way of a swift and beautiful black mare named
“Black Bess”.
She it was who carried Turpin to safety from the ‘Bow Street Runners’ (the forerunners
of the Metropolitan Police) by galloping all the way from London to York. Sadly, on arrival at
his ‘Safe House’ in that city, the poor horse dropped dead from exhaustion.
That is one story, another one says that Black Bess was a ‘gangster’s Moll’ Turpin’s
raven-haired mistress, with whom he shared his ill-gotten gains.
Which story is true? That, ladies and gentlemen of the Jury, is entirely for you to
decide!
