The Hon. Horatio Walpole, brother to the Earl of Orford, who was robbed by two men on the 7th in Hyde Park, when a pistol going off shot through the coach, and scorched his face, received a letter from the robbers, intimating their concern for the accident, and their apprehension of the consequences at that time; and that, if he would send to a place named, a person would be there to deliver his watch, sword and coachman’s watch, if he would, on his honour, send 40 guineas in less than an hour to the same place, with threats of destruction if he did not.1 But he did not comply, though he afterwards offered 20, the sum they fell to in a second letter.2

The Gentleman’s Magazine, November, 1749, p. 522

Notes

• on the 7th: an error by the reporter; the attack happened on the 8th. | a letter: this document has survived.  [return]
• he afterwards offered 20: this is another error. The surviving letter from Maclaine and Plunket makes it clear that Walpole had already advertised an offer of 20 guineas before that letter was sent. | a second letter: this, if it existed, has not survived.  [return]