COACHING 



performs more than half her journey by lampHght. Tt is 

 needless to say, then, our senior soon finds out his mistake ; 

 but there is no remedy at hand, for it is the dead of the night, 

 and all the inns are shut up. He must proceed, or be left 

 behind in a stable. The climax of his misfortunes then 

 approaches, 



' Nature being exhausted, sleep comes to his aid, and he 

 awakes on a stage which is called the fastest on the journey — 

 four miles of ground, and twelve minutes the time ! The old 

 gentleman starts from his seat, having dreamed the horses 

 were running away with the coach, and so, no doubt, they 

 might be. He is determined to convince himself of the fact, 

 though the passengers assure him " all 's right." " Don't 

 put your head out of the window," says one of them, " you will 

 lose your hat to a certainty " : but advice is seldom listened to 

 by a terrified man, and next moment a stentorian voice is 

 heard, crying, " Stop, coachman, stop — I have lost my hat 

 and wig ! " The coachman hears him not — and in another 

 second the broad wheels of a road waggon have for ever 

 demolished the lost head-gear.' 



That was the Road at its best : the poetic side we have in 

 mind when we speak of the good old days of coaching. The 

 following passages refer equally to the ' golden age ' ; their 

 very baldness has an eloquence of its own. It is true that the 

 winter of 1836-37 is conspicuous in history for the exception- 

 ally heavy snowfall ; but as Nimrod has shown coaching at its 

 best, there is no injustice in presenting these glimpses of coach 

 travel at its worst : — 



' Tabor, guard of the Devonport, who left London with the 

 mail on Sunday and returned on Wednesday, reports that a 

 mile and a half from Amesbury they got completely blocked. 

 The leaders dropped down, but rose again ; the near wheel- 

 horse fell and could not be got up. The coachman procured 

 a pair of post horses, but they could only get the wheel horse 

 out of the snow ; it was impossible to get him on his legs. 

 Four more post horses and four waggon horses were requisi- 



141 



