316 COACHING DAYS AND COACHING WAYS 



diluted spirit ; not however, I am glad to be able to say, 

 before he had conveyed a thimbleful of the liquid to his 

 own parched throat. The effect of these blandishments 

 on Black Bess may better be imagined than described — 

 "her condition was a surprise even to Dick himself." 

 Her vigour seemed inexhaustible, her vivacity not a whit 

 diminished, and suddenly " she pricked her ears and 

 uttered a low neigh." 



" Ha ! ' exclaimed Dick, springing into his saddle ; 

 " they come ! " 



A very short time after having made which remark, 

 Dick Turpin and his mare were " once more distancing 

 Time's swift chariot in its whirling passage o'er the 

 earth," in which agreeable exercise Stamford (89 miles 

 from London) and the tongue of Lincoln's fenny shire 

 on which it is situated, are passed almost in a breath. 

 Rutland is won and passed and Lincolnshire once more 

 entered. The Black Bull on Witham Common used to 

 mark the borders of the counties, and at the same time 

 the hundredth milestone from London. 



At about this point of the journey Dick's blood was 

 again on fire. " He was giddy as after a deep draught 

 of kindling spirit." This disagreeable symptom passed 

 off, my readers will be glad to learn — " yet the spirit was 

 still in the veins " — " the estro was working in the brain." 

 Subject to this somewhat complicated condition of 

 circulation is it surprising that Dick gave vent to his 

 exaltation in one wild prolonged halloo ? or that Bess, 

 catching the spirit of an example so contagious, also 

 bounded, leaped, and tore up the ground beneath her ? 

 And so " as eddying currents sweep o'er its plains in 

 howling, bleak December," the pair pass over what 

 remained of Lincolnshire — left the town of Grantham 

 (no miles), to which I shall also return in a moment or 

 two, behind them, and in due course, that is to say when 

 they had covered another mile and three quarters, they 

 were rising the ascent of Gunnerby Hill. From here 

 there is a fine prospect — on the right Lincoln Minster, 



