THE EXETER ROAD 81 



an odius Gothic taste that would have set Mr. Walpole 

 wild with pleasure." 



Now this was good travelling- in the days when full- 

 bottomed wigs were in wear, and the roads of England 

 in the state that I have described them. It was natural 

 however that the fine gentleman whose pocket permitted 

 him to fly " Flying Machines " as a slow form of lingering 

 death, should have made better time with the aid of 

 outriders, constant changes, and the finest cattle that 

 could be procured, than the sad citizen whose wish 

 was to pass from London to Exeter in the shortest 

 time possible, and whose purse only permitted him 

 to pass there behind six cart horses harnessed to a 

 diving bell. 



For such I take it was very much the sort of appear- 

 ance that the Exeter Fly presented in 1773, as it set out 

 for its weekly flight from the Bull and Gate in Aldersgate, 

 at five o'clock on some wintry morning, with the snow 

 already falling thickly. Nor did the passengers seated 

 in it, or rather clinging to its inside, aspire to Barry 

 Lyndon's good fortune. They did not look forward to 

 lying in state at Andover the first night, at Ilminster the 

 second, at Exeter the third. Far other were their dreams. 

 The young lady of the party (Belinda, Leanthe, Lucinda 

 — what you will) drew her furs round her, and nestled 

 closer to her mother, who took snuff at short intervals, 

 and returned with interest the opposing captain's 

 impudent gaze. The captain had been at Dettingen, 

 as he somewhat raucously informed the company on 

 entering the coach, a fact of which they appeared 

 doubtful, though they agreed nem. con. that he had since 

 been in liquor. Him (whenever, that is to say, he dared 

 to look at the young lady of the party) the young man 

 of the party — (Ranger, Mirabel — what you will) eyed 

 furiously as if he would eat him, sword, Dettingen and 

 all ; while the lawyer, who sat between these two men of 

 mettle, tried his best to preserve peace, and wished him- 

 self on the other side of the coach. All this party were 



G 



