USES TO WHICH [Chap. 



frequeutlv (twice every week in the year at the 

 least), taking the wife out a visiting, as hefore 

 mentioned, to take a comfortable cup of tea and 

 a gossip. My horses went very frequently to New 

 York; and were much about on a par, in point 

 of strength and swiftness, with those of the gene- 

 ral run of my neighbours, who, amidst all their 

 long-faced gravity and absence of ambition and 

 rivalship, have, nevertheless, this one species of 

 folly ; that, in going upon the road, it is looked 

 upon as a sort of slur on one, if another pass him, 

 going in the same direction : and this folly pre- 

 vails to as great a degree as amongst our break- 

 neck coachmen ; aiid you will see an old Quaker, 

 whom, to look at, as he sits perched in his wagon, 

 you would think had been cut out of stone a 

 couple of hundred years ago ; or hewed out of a 

 log of wood, with the axe of some of the first 

 settlers. If he hear a rattle behind him, you 

 will see him gently turn his head ; if he be pass- 

 ing a tavern at the time he pays little attention, 

 and refrains from laying his wdiip upon the 

 '' creatures," seeing that he is morally certain 

 that the rattler will stop to take " a grog" at the 

 tavern ; but if no such invitation present itself^ 

 and especially if there be a tavern two or three 

 miles a-head, he begins immediately to make 

 provision against the consequences of the impa- 

 tience of his rival, w ho, he is aware, will push him 



