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On the night of 10th May 1801, John Stevens, a post boy carrying The Tring Mail was waylaid and robbed on Box Moor, near Bourne End. It was a very dark night chosen well by the assailant, such that Stevens was unable to identify the robber (some reports suggest he killed the boy, but this seems unlikely as he subsequently gave information about the robbery to the authorities !).
James Blackman Snook (aka Robert Snooks) may well therefore have got away with his crime if he had been a little more careful. He fled the scene and went to Southwark in London. By all accounts there was a large quantity of money in notes in the bags he had stolen. It seems that by mistake he gave a serving girl a £50 note in place of a £5. Five pounds in those days was a very substantial amount of money - £50 was a huge amount. The suspicion thus aroused led to his downfall. He was moved around between two or three gaols, but finally returned to the spot on the heath where he had committed his crime. There he was hanged on 11th March 1802 and his body buried. This is theoretically the spot now marked by these two stones, erected by the Boxmoor Trust in 1904.
For more information see TL0306 : Snook's Grave from London Road & TL0306 : Robert Snooks 1761-1802