138 



COACHING DAYS AND COACHING WAYS 



as I said I would, though it took the shortest route 

 by Shaftesbury, Sherborne, Yeovil, and Chard, but will 

 go instead by the old mail road via Blandford, Dorchester, 

 and Bridport, by which such well-known coaches as the 

 Eclipse, the Royal Mail, and the Regulator used to 

 travel. And I select this route not only because it is the 

 old mail road, but because it runs to my mind through 

 a more interesting and storied country. At ten miles 



1 







ippp^f - w. 



Forde Abbey, near Chard. 



three furlongs from Salisbury, then, this road, to begin 

 with, brings us to the once celebrated Woodyates Inn, 

 and at the same time enters the delightful county of 

 Dorset. And here we are surrounded on all sides with 

 memories of that fatal rising which culminated on the 

 bleak plain of Sedgemoor, and crushed for ever the 

 daring hopes of the brilliant young nobleman who was 

 for so long the darling of the West. The memory of 



