To Barbara Rose
Satan is glad--- when I am bad,
And hopes that I--- with him shall lie
In fire and chains--- and dreadful pains
Victorian child's poem, 1856
"I wanted the money."
Edward Pierce, 1856
Introduction
It is difficult, after the passage of more than a century, to understand the extent to which the train robbery of 1855 shocked the sensibilities of Victorian England. At first glance, the crime hardly seems noteworthy. The sum of money stolen---
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