h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm not very good at long and rambling but I got thinking
about something you said in another post.
You said residents of the UK don't use the term highways
they speak of A roads. What about the historical figures who
made a living robbing people on the road.
would you call them roadmen rather than Highwaymen.
It seems like I remember that some famous poet wrote
a Poem entitled the Highway Man. I wonder what country he was from?
Maybe I'll go hunt up a search engine.

Well here I am again back from a search engine(findwhat)
and apparently "The Highwayman" came from
Fourty Singing Seamen and Other Poems1907
by: ...Alfred Noyes- born in Wolverhampton 16 Sept 1880
How's that for specifics.

Shagbark

Thanks for the information. I remember listening to one of my teachers reading the poem at Junior school (I don't know what grade that is but it would have been when I was between 7 & 11 years old.

'The Highwayman came riding,
Riding, riding,
The Highwayman came riding'
[Da-da de-da de-da]
can't remember the whole thing but it was a good bit of rhythmic storytelling.

Yes, highwaymen are romantic figures but in England, at least in the present, you're only likely to get robbed on the road if you stop at traffic lights in the wrong part of town.

'Highway' is only used today in the context of legal definitions. Everyday verbal reference is generally made to 'roads'or 'motorways' and the term 'highway' isn't commonly used.

I wonder if h2g2 has a 'Highwayman' researcher...
Toodle-pip
Spitfire