ri4 COACHING DAYS AND COACHING WAYS 



miles, runs through a desolate country, which already 

 begins to anticipate in its lonely monotony some of the 

 more engaging peculiarities of Salisbury Plain. Through 

 this tract (it being give-and-take sort of land) the fast 

 coaches made fast time ; past Worting, once famous for 

 its White Hart ; past Overton, six miles and a half 

 further on, famous for its trout stream and foxhounds — 

 the celebrated Vyne ; and so on to Whitchurch, which 

 is fifty-six miles six furlongs from Hyde Park Corner, 

 and is not the bustling place now that it was when the 

 coaches from London to Salisbury, and from Oxford to 

 Winchester, crossed each other here, as they used to. 

 It may be perhaps unnecessary for me to say that the 

 inn at Whitchurch is The White Hart, but what adds 

 interest to the fact is that it was here, while waiting for 

 the down mail to Falmouth, that Newman began the 

 Lyra Apostolica, with the lines, " Are these the tracks of 

 some unearthly friend ? " 



Seven miles further and we are in Andover, which 

 though a small place, has a railway junction and a 

 history. Here Henry VII. rested from his labours after 

 suppressing the insurrection of Perkin Warbeck ; but 

 whether the miserly Tudor put up at the Star and 

 Garter, or the everlasting White Hart, or their mediaeval 

 equivalents, if there were any, is more than I can say. 

 It was upon Andover, to link another royalty with the 

 place, that James II. fell back, after the breaking-up of 

 the camp at Salisbury. Here it was that he was deserted 

 by Prince George, remarkable for his impenetrable 

 stupidity and his universal panacea for all contingencies 

 in a catch-word. Whatever happened, " Est-il possible ? ' 

 was his exclaim. He supped with the king, who was 

 at the moment overwhelmed naturally enough with his 

 misfortunes, said nothing during a dull meal, but directly 

 it was over slipped out to the stable in the company of 

 the Duke of Ormond, mounted, and rode off. James 

 did not exhibit much surprise on learning the adventure, 

 being used to desertion by this time. He merely 



