WITH HOESE AND HOUND 



gentlemen, to be sure, but much too fast to be safe. However, 

 thank Heaven, we are arrived at a good-looking house ; and 



now, waiter f I hope you have got breakf " Before the 



last syllable, however, of the word could be pronounced, the 

 worthy old gentleman's head struck the back of the coach by 

 a jerk, which he could not account for (the fact was, three of 

 the four fresh horses were bolters), and the waiter, the inn, 

 and indeed Hounslow itself {terraeque urhesque recedunt) dis- 

 appeared in the twinkling of an eye. Never did such a 

 succession of doors, windows, and window- shutters pass so 

 quickly in his review before — and he hoped they might never 

 do so again. Recovering, however, a little from his surprise — 

 " My dear sir," said he, " you told me we were to change 

 horses at Hounslow ? Surely they are not so inhuman as to 

 drive these poor animals another stage at this unmerciful 

 rate ! " " Change horses, sir ! " says the proprietor ; " why, 

 we changed them whilst you were putting on your spectacles, 

 and looking at your watch. Only one minute allowed for it at 

 Hounslow, and it is often done in fifty seconds by those nimble- 

 fingered horse-keepers." " You astonish me — but really I 

 do not like to go so fast." *'0h, sir ! we always spring them 

 over these six miles. It is what we call the hospital ground.''^ 

 This alarming phrase is presently interpreted : it intimates 

 that horses whose " backs are getting down instead of up in 

 their work " — some " that won't hold an ounce down hill, or 

 draw an ounce up " — others " that kick over the pole one day 

 and over the bars the next " — in short, all the reprobates, 

 styled in the road slang bo-kickers, are sent to work these six 

 miles, because here they have nothing to do but gallop — not a 

 pebble as big as a nutmeg on the road ; and so even, that it 

 would not disturb the equilibrium of a spirit-level. 



' The coach, however, goes faster and faster over the 

 hospital ground, as the bo-kickers feel their legs, and the collars 

 get warm to their shoulders ; and having ten outsides, the 

 luggage of the said ten, and a few extra packages besides on the 

 roof, she rolls rather more than is pleasant, although the centre 



74 



