Ill Met by Gaslight: Five Edinburgh Murders Read Online Free PDF Page B

interlude that was the reward of their profession; four weeks in which they could live like the bucks, swells or dandies they saw themselves as being. They passed the mornings riding, their afternoons and evenings gaming and occasionally took in a dance. It was a provincial version of the life led by their social superiors, the Corinthians themselves. Barney of course was a dab hand at all this, an `excellent card-player’, Davy assures us; `to him I am indebted for the great proficiency I afterwards arrived at in the use of cards, dice or billiards.’ But unlike the gentry they aped, Barney and David were businessmen, with a calling to follow. Money soon ran through their hands. Stocks had to be replenished. Pleasure, the criminal soon realises, has to be paid for. This time they received a check, the first of young David’s career. An attempted `snib’ in the Rickergate failed. Worse, they aroused the suspicion of the authorities, who must always have kept a wary eye on such newcomers to the town as flashed money about, had no obvious source of income, did no work, and could not - whatever their pretensions - qualify as gentry. Barney and David found that the constables had taken possession of their portmanteaux and awaited them at their inn. No doubt they were to be asked to assist with inquiries. It was a distasteful notion and they were naturally reluctant; it was time to evaporate. They did so, making no effort to salvage their goods. Easy come, after all, easy go. They left town at once, pausing only to replenish their wardrobes, `bilking and fleecing a merchant-tailor’. Next stop was Kendal Fair, `one of the finest horse-markets
    in England’. Here a `deeker’ attempted to queer their pitch. Much to their irritation, they found themselves compelled to pose as bona ride horse dealers, and even buy a horse to divert suspicion from their real activities. They sold it almost at once. Less skilled in this sort of business than in their chosen avocation, they dropped five shillings on the deal. The loss was short-lived. Reverting to their proper role, they then robbed the buyer and found themselves in the end £43 to the good. Continuing their round of the Northern Fairs they proceeded to Morpeth, where they found a deal of criminal competition, but where the resourceful Barney fleeced a gang of prigs from York.
    They felt entitled again to the reward of leisure, and established themselves in Newcastle, taking private lodgings in Castle Street as John Wilson and James Atkinson, gentlemen travelling for pleasure. Their standing was evident, at least in their own eyes: `great swells with our white-caped coats. top boots and whips’. The landlady had three daughters, `very pleasant girls’, says David complacently, and with them they passed `a jolly Christmas Day, 1817’.
    He had been in business just eight months.
    One night in the New Year they took the girls to the theatre, where Barney, more experienced and always mindful that they had to work in order to continue to live in their chosen style, proposed a theft. David replied that, `it might be done if it were not for the blones’ (girls). It was therefore agreed that he should occupy them while Barney lifted the loot. It was worth £70, but this did not defray their Newcastle expenses by £14. They therefore resorted to burglary, a new departure for David but not for Barney. In the course of the job they tied up the master of the house, but burglary had dangers that their normal pursuits lacked. Unless a pickpocket is actually identified in the instant he commits his crime, or found with the stuff on him, detection is difficult; all that can usually be said is that he was in the crowd, in the vicinity. And the nature of a crowd is such that this can be said of many others. Burglary however admits to a more positive identification, especially when you have had to tie up witnesses. David and Barney were both apprehended within days. ‘Unfortunately,’ says