The Merry Past 



Jack, supposing himself on a stage-coach, hallooed : 

 " Go on, Coachee, go on, and I'll pay my fare when 

 we arrive in Piccadilly." 



The fashion of gentlemen driving coaches for 

 pleasure greatly improved the conditions of travelling 

 just before the introduction of railways. The stage- 

 coach drivers came into close contact with a more 

 civilised type of humanity, and were seized with a 

 wholesome spirit of emulation, a creditable style of 

 dress and address, and an honest pride in the condi- 

 tion, neatness, order, and cleanly comfort of their 

 cattle. 



Coach travelling changed (from what it used to be 

 in the olden time, a disgusting and tedious labour), 

 first into comparative comfort, and at last to something 

 very like luxury. A modern stage-coach was an 

 ornamental and beautiful object on the road. The 

 old coach was an unwieldy machine, loaded (or 

 rather overloaded) with luggage and wayworn 

 passengers groaning in concert with the surcharged 

 and crazy vehicle that lumbered heavily along. 



The old Four-in-Hand Club, notwithstanding its 

 brief existence, and in spite of all the satire and ridicule 

 which was unmercifully bestowed upon it when it was 

 first started, did infinite good. Harness, if ill-con- 

 structed, is at once unsafe to travellers, and more 

 tormentingly punishing to horses than all the whips 

 and all the spurs which ever were sold. The Four-in- 

 Hand Club improved it in a thousand particulars, 

 of which the ordinary coachmen, without practical 

 experiment, could never have been judges ; and of 



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