THE BATH ROAD 49 



before the magistrates, " replied to the wild charge with 

 a mournful dignity " — but so did the late Mr. William 

 Palmer of Rugeley notoriety under similarly embarrass- 

 ing circumstances ; and he could keep accounts as well 

 as Darrell could, ay, and make a book too. I trust, 

 I am sure, that the author of Society in the Elizabethan 

 Age will give us many more charming works of the 

 same kind, but he must really not try to destroy all 

 romantic faith that is in us with such doubtful argu- 

 ments as these. Meanwhile I wonder whether he has 

 seen all those papers that Popham's agent seized 

 almost before Darrell's breath was out of his body, and 

 despatched in chests to London, there to await the 

 arbitration promised between the respective claims of 

 the Attorney-General and the Secretary of State, who 

 also had a finger in this mysterious pie. Why this 

 almost indecent despatch on the part of Popham 

 (" faithful to the last, though wise only for himself") 

 I should much like to know. I wonder ! 



In the interim I must hurry after Miss Burney and 

 Mrs. Thrale, who are waiting for me all this while at 

 the Bear Inn at Devizes, three and twenty miles or so 

 down the road. I cannot find much to record in the 

 way of history, coaching or otherwise, between Hunger- 

 ford and Marlborough. The road between Newbury and 

 Bath was called the " lower ground," and being remark- 

 able chiefly for its hills, necessitated much skidding 

 and unskidding. Nor even in the palmy days was it un- 

 renowned for accidents. On the contrary, the Beaufort- 

 Hunt fast day coach from London to Bath, run by the 

 celebrated Sherman, he of the moustachios (a prodigy, 

 a blasphemy I had almost said, in those days ; of the 

 three old ladies also, wived in succession ; distinguished, 

 moreover, for the colour of his coaches, which was 

 yellow ; and for their strange shape, which was heavy, 

 peculiar, and old-fashioned as Noah's Ark) — the Beaufort 

 Hunt, I say, was upset in this part of the world three 

 times in less than three weeks, an event, or rather a 



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