Canterbury Weekly, 7 January, 1837.

Highway Robbery.

On Monday evening 26th ult. Knight, coachman to B. D. Dupps, of Hollingbourne House, who had been to Maidstone for medicine, was on his return between 8 and 9 o'clock with the same and some articles of grocery, he had purchased, carrying a Lantern, and accompanied by a powerful dog, when a little beyond the "Kentish Yeoman," near Bearsted, he was stopped by man in a short gabardine who demanded his money. Night replied that he was only a servant, and that he had been to fetch medicine. The man then knocked him down, on which Knight's dog instantly seized the fellow by the leg, who fell, and on his rising, Knight returned the compliment. Another man then came up and knocked Knight down, and immediately after a third made an appearance. Finding it useless to resist Knight allowed them to rifle his pockets, from which they took about 5 shillings and sixpence, and also some tea and sugar. They also took the bottle of medicine, and having examined it by the lights of his lantern, they threw it at his head. It fell on the ground without breaking, and he picked it up, and proceeded on his way home, though not before he had experienced some difficulty inducing the dog, to leave the man he had seized.

Maidstone journal.