The Merry Past 



The Four-in-Hand Club came to an end owing to 

 the great expense which the members incurred. 

 One of these being asked why it was broken up — very 

 dryly answered, " It's not broken up, it's broken 

 down; we hadn't enough Mn hand' to go on with 

 it." 



When coaching was the rage amongst fashionable 

 bucks, the turn-outs of the latter were often mistaken 

 for regular stage coaches. 



A farmer living not far from the London road near 

 Stamford, directed one of his labourers to take a 

 basket, which contained a present for a friend in 

 London, to the road, and deliver it to a particular 

 coach which would be the first that passed upward. 

 In two or three minutes, trumpeting along came 

 what appeared to be the coach for which the man 

 waited, and he delivered his parcel and paid for the 

 carriage, as desired. The wag of a buck who drove 

 the coach and his friends, exulting in their success, 

 drove to the Fountain Inn, Huntingdon, where they 

 dined well off a fine green goose and early peas (the 

 contents of the basket), and afterwards packed up the 

 bones and the pea-shells, and forwarded the present 

 by a real coach, agreeably to the direction. 



Whilst a gentleman of the Four-in-Hand Club was 

 driving his coach (which had all the appearance of a 

 stage-coach) from Richmond to town, with a few 

 servants on the roof, a nimble tar, seeing the seats 

 behind empty, immediately mounted and placed 

 himself on the dickey, when the gentleman, on per- 

 ceiving his breezy passenger, began to pull up : but 



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