2 Four-in-Hand in Britain. 



I should drive a party of my dearest friends from 

 Brighton to Inverness. Black's "Adventures of a 

 Phaeton" came not long after this to prove that another 

 Scot had divined how idyllic the journey could be 

 made. It was something of an air-castle — of a dream — 

 those far-off days, but see how it has come to pass ! 



The world, in my opinion, is all wrong on the sub- 

 ject of air-castles. People are forever complaining 

 that their chateaux en Espagne are never realized. But 

 the trouble is with them — they fail to recognize them 

 when they come. "To-day," says Carlyle, "is a king 

 in disguise," and most people are in possession of their 

 air-castles, but lack the trick to see't. 



Look around you ! see Vandy, for instance. When 

 we were thus doing Merrie England on foot, he with a 

 very modest letter of credit stowed away in a belt 

 round his sacred person — for Vandy it was who always 

 carried the bag (and a faithful treasurer and a careful 

 one too — good boy, Vandy !) ; he was a poor student 

 then, and you should have heard him philosophize and 

 lord it over us two, who had been somewhat fortunate 

 in rolling mills, and were devoted to business. " Great 

 Caesar! boys, if I ever get fifteen hundred dollars a 

 year income!" (This was the fortune I was vaguely 

 figured up to be worth under ordinary conditions.) 

 "Great Caesar! boys" — and here the fist would come 

 down on the hard deal table, spilling a few drops of 

 beer — " fifteen hundred dollars a year ! Catch me 



