COACHING 



sized horses, full of power, and still fuller of condition, but 

 with a fair sprinkling of blood ; in short, the eye of a judge 

 would have discovered something about them not very unlike 

 galloping. " All right ! " cried the guard, taking his key- 

 bugle ^ in his hand ; and they proceeded up the village, at a 

 steady pace, to the tune of " Scots wha hae wi' Wallace bled," 

 and continued at that pace for the first five miles. " / am 

 landed f^^ thinks our friend to himself. Unluckily, however, for 

 the humane and cautious old gentleman, even the Regulator 

 was about to show tricks. Although what now is called a slow 

 coach, she is timed at eight miles in the hour through a great 

 extent of country, and must, of course, make play where she 

 can, being strongly opposed by hills lower down the country, 

 trifling as these hills are, no doubt, to what they once were. 

 The Regulator, moreover, loads well, not only with passengers, 

 but with luggage ; and the last five miles of this stage, called 

 the Bridge Flat, have the reputation of being the best five 

 miles for a coach to be found at this time in England. The 

 ground is firm ; the surface undulating, and therefore favour- 

 able to draught ; always dry, not a shrub being near it ; nor 

 is there a stone upon it much larger than a marble. These 

 advantages, then, are not lost to the Regulator, or made use 

 of without sore discomposure to the solitary tenant of her 

 gammon board. 



'Any one that has looked into books will very readily 

 account for the lateral motion, or rocking, as it is termed, of a 

 coach, being greatest at the greatest distance from the horses 

 (as the tail of a paper kite is in motion whilst the body remains 

 at rest ) ; and more especially when laden as this coach was 

 — the greater part of the weight being forward. The situation 

 of our friend, then, was once more deplorable. The Regulator 

 takes but twenty-three minutes for these celebrated five miles, 

 which cannot be done without " springing the cattle " now and 

 then ; and it was in one of the very best of their gallops of that 



^ Only the mail-coach guard carried a horn ; stage-coach guards used the key-bugle, 

 and some were very clever performers on it. 

 L 8i 



