Richard "Dick" Turpin was an eighteenth-century highwayman and horse thief. After shooting a man during a robbery, Turpin rode 60 miles nonstop on his mare Black Bess in order to escape from the law. He was hanged in 1739. During the nineteenth century his story became the inspiration for a number of serialized novels, plays, and songs. Miles's version of the legend was published in London in 1839 by Thomas White. Miles was also the author of a biography of Joseph Grimaldi and several books on sports.

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