Page 39 - Reading Mercury
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th
                   Fri 25  Nov.
                      Last Monday a gentleman in a one-horse chaise was run down near Ilford, in Essex,
                   and his chaise broke to pieces by one of the Romford stage coaches, although he was
                   in the clear road, and close to the causeway, and room sufficient for several carriages
                   to go a-breast; but providentially the gentleman received no hurt. The coachman, on
                   being remonstrated with, told the gentleman he might go to the devil for his damages,
                   and  that  he  could  afford  to  spend  a  hundred  as  well  as  him,  and  then  drove  away
                   without giving him any assistance. It is hoped the gentleman will make an example of
                   Mr. Whip, in order to deter some of those insolent gentry, as many of those drivers of
                   public stages are a terror to travellers.

                      Tuesday night  a Mr.  More, of Parliament-street,  Westminster, was  stopped as  he
                   was returning from the country seat at Highgate-Hill by a single highwayman well
                   mounted, who robbed him of near nine pounds and his watch, took a guinea and a half
                   from his footman, and then told them, if they should be stopped again, to say, Gone
                   forward, and they would pass fair, and then made off towards town.

                      A  few  mornings  a  tradesman  in  Westminster,  hearing  some  little  noise  in  his
                   daughter’s  room,  got  up  to  see  what  it  was,  taking  a  hanger  with  him,  which  he
                   constantly kept in his own room; when finding an Irish gentleman, who lodged in the
                   first floor, in bed with the young lady; he gave him several wounds in several parts of
                   the  body,  which  appear  so  dangerous  at  present,  that  it  is  thought  the  unfortunate
                   enamorata will never destroy the peace of another family.

                                                  BERKSHIRE NEWS
                                                WOKINGHAM, Nov. 25.
                      A scheme is in agitation to take the government of the poor out of the parish officers
                   hands,  and  to  place  the  same  through  England  and  Wales  in  the  management  and
                   direction of select Governors chosen for that purpose; also to unite a certain number
                   of parishes into proper districts, each of which is to have a work-house erected for the
                   setting  into  work  and  employing  all  the  poor  in  such  a  manner,  and  in  such
                   employments,  as  they  shall  be  found  capable  of  undertaking;  and  these  Governors
                   &c., to lay their proceedings before every session of Parliament.

                        th
                   Fri 9  Dec
                                                                             Wokingham, Dec, 8, 1774
                   JOHN  JENNINGS,  Proprietor  of  the  Stage  Waggon  from  Wokingham  to  Reading,
                   returns  thanks  to  his  Friends  and  Customers  for  the  favours  conferred  on  him  for
                   many years past, and hopes for the continuance of them, and begs leave to inform
                   them, and the Public in general that the Waggon goes from Wokingham to Reading
                   every Wednesday and Saturday as usual, and puts up at the Broad Face in the Market-
                   plsce. All parcels committed to his care will be delivered with the utmost punctuality
                   and dispatch.
                                 Performed (if God permits)
                                         By the Public’s obliged humble servant,
                                                JOHN JENNINGS

                                    NEW STAGE from WOKINGHAM to READING
                      This is to inform the Public, That a WAGGON or CART will set out To-morrow,
                   and continue to set out every Wednesday and Saturday morning at eight o’clock, from

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