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Captain Swing
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==Examples of threatening "Swing" letters== <!--***Editors Note*** The following quotes contain bad grammar and spelling. Please do not 'correct' these as they are direct quotes from the originals.**--> {{quote|Sir, Your name is down amongst the Black hearts in the Black Book and this is to advise you and the like of you, who are Parson Justasses, to make your wills. Ye have been the Blackguard Enemies of the People on all occasions, Ye have not yet done as ye ought,... Swing|{{harvnb|Gallop|2017|loc=Part 1}}}} {{quote|Sir, This is to acquaint you that if your threshing machines are not destroyed by you directly we shall commence our labours. Signed on behalf of the whole... Swing|{{harvnb|Hobsbawm|Rudé|1973|p=172|ref=Hobs}}}} Not all letters were from impoverished farm labourers trying to improve their lot; other people saw the use of the eponymous 'Swing' purely for private gain. For example a letter sent to a Mrs Chandler of Church Farm, Pursey, Wiltshire, was an obvious attempt at extortion: {{quote|Madam — I have to request that you will send me by return of post the sum of £10, or else your house will be burned with the ground very shortly, as I know that you can well afford to spare that sum for a short time, until I have the effects to repay it. Keep this secret, or it will be the worse for you, as I have spys about your neighbourhood. Direct to me, ‘X.Y.Z.’ The Nag’s Head, James-street, Covent Garden. ‘SWING’. P. S. Be not to make no delay in sending it|{{harvnb|Matthews|2011|p=31}}}} The sender turned out to be a soldier in the [[Dragoon Guards|Dragoons]].{{sfn|Matthews|2011|p=31}}
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