about four o'clock
Nevison , however , was a north countryman only in the sense that he was born in Yorkshire , and he never did frequent any part of the north country , but confined his operations chiefly to districts adjacent to London , where he flew at higher game than in those days was generally to be found travelling Border roads . Nor in reality was it he who took that great ride to York . The feat was accomplished in the year 1676 by a man named Nicks , if Defoe 's account is to be relied on . Nicks committed a robbery at Gadshill , near Chatham , at about four o'clock one summer 's morning . Knowing that , in spite of his crape mask , his victim had recognised him , Nicks galloped to Gravesend , where , together with his mare , he crossed the Thames by boat , then swung smartly across country to Chelmsford , and thence on , with only necessary halts to bait his horse , by way of Cambridge , through Huntingdon , and so on to the Great North Road . Without ever changing his mount , he reached York early that evening , having taken only fifteen hours for a journey of two hundred miles . If the time is correct , she must have been a great mare , and he a consummate horse-master .