According to a report in The Exeter Flying Post of 15th January, 1824:
"A piece of silk having been missed last week, from the shop of Messrs. J.C. Wilcocke and son, suspicion fall on a woman of this city, called Ann Lugg; who was apprehended on Saturday last, and locked up in the front room of the Guildhall, overlooking the street, while search was making at her house for the stolen goods.
"During the absence of the officers for that purpose, she made a desperate attempt to escape, by fastening her shawl, handkerchief and garters together to aid her descent from the window. The line, however, either proved too short, or broke; she fell to the pavement, and having injured one of her legs so severely, as to impede her retreat, she was retaken."
It must be a twenty-foot drop from the upper windows of the Guildhall. For all her sins Ann Lugg must have been a plucky woman.
Her garters will have been lengthy strips of riband (ribbon) wrapped around her stockings,
Ann Lugg's house was found to contain an astounding quantity and variety of stolen goods. She was committed for trial at the next Assises on a charge of stealing 60 yards of scarlet lutestring.
The jolly word 'Lutestring' is a corruption of 'lustring', a glossy (lustrous), silk dress-fabric.
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