THE EXETER ROAD 



103 



the address of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to 

 Animals — or its equivalent in those days. The pro- 

 prietor, smiling superior, blandly tells him that they have 

 changed horses while he was putting on his spectacles. 

 '* Only one minute allowed for it at Hounslow, sir, and 

 it is often done in fifty seconds by those nimble-fingered 

 horse-keepers." The coach at this moment begins to 







V... ■*-._■ -i-' 



Crane Bridge, Salisbury. 



rock violently, bounding about the road like a pea on 

 a drum, and showing other outward signs of being 

 attached to runaway horses, which phenomena, having 

 been remarked upon by Mirabel (who clings to his seat 

 as tenaciously as ever he did fifty years before to the 

 seat of the Exeter Fly), are thus explained by the 

 omniscient proprietor, in words full of darkness and 

 doubt. 



