E[ast] Dereham: printed by W. Barker, [1791]

The clever title of this notice makes the reader feel very much in the moment. A robber has attacked a lady and her servant with a poker, leaving them for dead; it is “to be fear’d” that the servant will die, but at the time this piece was printed, they were being treated in hospital. The key message is that the robber must be apprehended before committing any further misdeeds, playing on the fear of being attacked in one’s own home which is still present today.

Broadsides.B.79.16