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market for watches .and clothes, and numerous fences ready to accommodate the thief, who was thus spared the embarrassment of having the goods long in his possession. David was wise enough to ring the changes of his fences. It was a mistake - as admirers of The Beggar’s Opera will be aware - for the thief to put himself in the power of a fence, who might find it expedient to shop him.

    Normally the fence would pay about 25% of the value of goods. David stole surprisingly often from drapers and hosiers, and not merely when he wanted something nice to give a girl, but as a matter of policy. There was clearly a good demand for the stuff. This is something the thief soon learns: to take what will find a ready market. In this respect he is a businessman like any other. No more point in stealing what is out of fashion than in writing five act tragedies in blank verse; in neither case will it go. Among the fences David used were Billy Cook in the Calton (just below the jail) and John Johnstone in Crosscauseway. There were a good many Johnstones or Johnstons, apart from the unfortunate twice-hanged Robert, engaged in criminal activities in the city at that time; it was as if the Border reivers had moved north and retained their old morality. Davy lodged with one for a bit, and had at another time a girl-friend called jean Johnston, with whom, in one of his less credible stories, he claimed once to have effected the release of some prisoners: `went to the lockup shop, and having plied the keeper with plenty of budge, I took the key and let out six of the prisoners’.
    As a diversion from city life, there were trips out of town, to the autumn races at Perth for example. The morning coach from Princes Street allowed the traveller to do the journey in less than a day, arriving in Perth about four in the afternoon. Perth was a good town for the profession, as traditional border towns usually are, and David found farmers, venturing south of the Highland Line, regular prey. It was a good centre too for day trips to local fairs - Dunkeld and Kenmore for instance - and for visits to Dundee and longer trips up the coast, as far as Aberdeen. It became in fact his second Scottish home. Whenever he felt bored, or perhaps a bit closely overwatched in Edinburgh, he took a little trip to Perth. It was there he once, with his friend Dr Black, agreeably lightened the punishment that some colleagues in the fraternity were due to receive. These wretches had been sentenced to be whipped through the town (‘coored through the You’ in Haggart’s cant - clearly French-derived, this expression). The Doctor, a burly and resouceful criminal, joined with David in getting hold of the hangman whose job it was to lay on the whip. They plied him with liquor and then threatened him that `if he was severe on them, we would darken him’. It is the old technique, familiar from a hundred B Feature movies: soften ‘em up, treat ‘em rough.
    There were always good friends in Perth. Towards the end of his career, when his luck seemed to be running out, he could still find safety there. Approached in his lodgings once, he was able to fob off the police by adopting a high tone, which his landlord was happy to support. `What’s your name?’ `That’s a very rude question to ask of any gentleman.’ If he is to be believed - and it must be confessed that this is one story where Reason prompts agreement with Cockburn’s scepticism -.this was sufficient to check the police; David’s landlord then assured them that he was a respectable gentleman who always paid his bills in time (as of course prudent criminals do, at least in the right quarters), and the atmosphere became sufficiently relaxed to allow him to slip out of the back door to `one of the most profligate houses in town’, where naturally he was perfectly safe, and remained till it was time to resume business at Glamis Fair.
    He had his odd moments of repentance, generally when in poor health. Then he