90 COACHING DAYS AND COACHING WAYS 



coach, he would have secured the rogue effectually 

 without all this bustle and loss of time, by a scheme 

 which my heat and precipitation ruined. ' For my own 

 part,' continued he, ' I am always extremely cool on 

 these occasions.' 



" ' So it appeared by your trembling,' said the young 

 lady. 



" ' Death and the deuce ! ' cried he. ' Your sex protects 

 you, madam ; if any man on earth durst tell me so much 

 I'd send him to in an instant.' 



" So saying he fixed his eyes upon me, and asked if I 

 had seen him tremble. I answered without hesitation 

 ' Yes.' 



" ' D — e sir,' said he, ' d'ye doubt my courage ? ' I 

 replied, ' Very much.' This declaration quite discon- 

 certed him ; he looked blank, and pronounced with a 

 faltering voice, ( Oh, 'tis very well ! I shall find a time.' 



" I signified my contempt of him by thrusting my 

 tongue into my cheek, which humbled him so much that 

 he scarce swore another oath aloud during the whole 

 journey" — or perhaps till he got as far as Brentford, 

 let us say, where our travellers in the Exeter Fly break- 

 fasted at The Pigeons. 



Brentford is seven miles from Hyde Park Corner, and 

 is a noted town in the opinion of some experts, 

 though others, I observe, prefer to describe it as a filthy 

 place. The Pigeons was, at any rate in the old coaching 

 days, a noted inn for post-horses, two of whom, tired of 

 life and the vile paving stones which adorned the streets, 

 tried early in the century to drown themselves in the 

 Grand Canal, in the decorous company of a clergyman 

 from Buckinghamshire, who was seated in the chaise 

 with twelve volumes of Tillotson's sermons, two maiden 

 daughters, and their aunt. On being recovered from the 

 waters, the Buckinghamshire clergyman sought his 

 sermons, or rather Tillotson's, wildly, and when he found 

 they had gone to improve the fishes, he lifted up his 

 voice and said the strangest things. He told one of his 



