THE YORK ROAD 303 



But was Peter Pry's figure jocund after he had par- 

 taken ? " Eat and drink you must," he says. " I tasted 

 all." Wretched man, let him describe in directly simple 

 words his own miserable subsequent state ! <: My poor 

 stomach," he writes, " not used to such luxuries at eleven 

 in the morning, was in fine agitation for the remaining 

 fifty miles of the ride." 



And who can say justly that this agitation was to be 

 wondered at ! 



It must not be thought however that perils such as 

 these, springing from an unreasonable hospitality were 

 the only perils to be encountered in the coaching days 

 on the great north road. Catastrophes abound in the 

 record ; and this very Stamford Regent which I have 

 been speaking of used frequently to get into cold water 

 when the floods were out and the weather rainy. 



Mr. C. T. Birch-Reynardson who has much to say 

 about the northern coaches in his Down the Road, com- 

 memorates one of these contingencies, which occurred in 

 this wise — At a place called St. Neot's, fifty-six miles 

 from London, the Regent coach used to leave the main 

 road, every now and then, for some reason which remains 

 occult, and go round by some paper mills, which were 

 naturally situated on the flat. The river Ouse has a 

 habit, as is well known, of playfully overflowing its banks, 

 and the consequence was that the road lying before the 

 Regent coach lay sometimes for half a mile under water. 

 Now an extra pair of leaders were put on, and ridden by 

 a horsekeeper, who made the best of his way through a 

 situation which was novel not to say precarious. The 

 water was often up to the axle-trees ; and on the par- 

 ticular occasion of which Mr. Reynardson writes, went 

 beyond this limit and invaded the inside of the coach. 

 For a moment or two the Stamford Regent was afloat, 

 also two old ladies who were inside of it, with their goods 

 and chattels. Their cries and laments when they found 

 the coach gradually being converted into an Ark 

 were heartrending in the extreme. They gave them- 



