CHAPTER XCI.
PEACE’S DOINGS IN LONDON AND THE SUBURBS—HIS HOME LIFE AT EVELINA-ROAD, PECKHAM.
After changing his place of residence two or three times, Peace ultimately settled himself permanently at Peckham with his two housekeepers—Mrs. Peace and Mrs. Thompson—together with Willie Ward, his step-son, and it was at this time that he committed a series of burglaries in the suburbs of London, which are altogether unparalleled in the history of any criminal.
The house he had chosen for his residence was No. 5, East-terrace, Evelina-road, Peckham. It was very conveniently situated for the masterly operations of the crafty burglar’s nefarious art; he selected it manifestly with an eye to business.
It was the end one of a row, and was bordered with a hedge on one side, that abutted on the Palace railway embankment, near the Nunhead Station. A gateway leading to the rear of the house gave entrance to an ordinary vehicle, and the exits from the dwelling were so numerous that a rascal of Peace’s type would rarely be so ambuscaded as to block his flight in case of surprise, however cleverly contrived.
He came into the neighbourhood as a retired gentleman, possessed of a modest competence, which would enable him to live quietly without business cares, and also enable him to indulge little whims in a scientific direction, in which indulgence he gave out that he had lost thousands.
Mr. Cleaves, the greengrocer at the corner, was commissioned to “move him,” as Mr. Cleaves says, from Greenwich, where he had been living a retired and peaceful life, allowing his days and nights to ebb in the cause of science.
Mr. Cleaves charged a sovereign for the job of transporting, and the convict was so beneficent as to add 2s. and a fried steak and beer, in appreciation of the services rendered.
The furniture was costly, and somewhat extravagant for a man of the convict’s simplicity, there being two suites of drawing-room furniture, and loads of knick-knacks that only a luxurious taste would covet, and a heavy purse undertake to own.
But unquestionably a large amount of plate and a considerable collection of pictures that the convict owned were not transported openly in Mr. Cleaves’ vans, but forwarded secretly from Greenwich to Peckham.