THE HOLY IIP; AD ROAD 363 



lot. No. He was accustomed, when the crisis came, 

 and the coach threatened to come- to a full stop 

 where there was no proper halting place, to play a 

 sort of rat-tat-tat with both feet on the foot-board 

 — and lo ! the sticky ones sprang up to their collars 

 at once, as if the author of all evil was behind them. 

 Much exercised by this extraordinary phenomenon, Mr. 

 Reynardson with a praiseworthy impulse to arrive at the 

 dark truth, remarked, " Well ! that's a curious dodge ! 

 What do they think is coming? 53 Upon which Old 

 John Scott, saying, kl Wait a pit, I'll soon let you see 

 what the) r think is coming," — stooped down and pro- 

 duced from the boot a most respectable and persuasive 

 looking " Short Tommy ". This sounds rather like a 

 case for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to 

 Animals — did we not have it on the best authority that 

 Old John Scott was a worthy, good, little, stout-made 

 fellow, whose B was sounded like P, and who when he 

 said "Shall" pronounced it like Sail. 



An artist of a finer mould was Sam Hayward, who 

 drove the Wonder from Shifnal to Shrewsbury (18 miles). 

 Not only was he a fine performer on the Road — but he 

 did a deed in the usual way of business when he got into 

 Shrewsbury which made spectators stare. The Lion 

 yard is just on the top of the hill in Shrewsbury, and is 

 so placed that to coachmen not demigods, to turn into 

 it off a sharpish pitch with a heavy load was to attempt 

 the impossible to an accompaniment of breaking poles 

 and shrieking passengers. All other coaches coming 

 from London went in therefore ignominiously by the back- 

 way, though they came out at the usual entrance. Not 

 so Sam Hayward on the Wonder. Secure in the know- 

 ledge of accomplished strength he smilingly hugged the 

 kerbstone on the near side, passed the entrance for a few 

 yards — but yards accurately calculated — then described 

 a round and imperial circle, and shot in under the arch- 

 way a victorious, a classic charioteer. People at first 

 thought him mad — I read, when they saw him thus as it 



