372 COACHING DAYS AND COACHING WAYS 



a more graceful posture — namely, inclining on to the back 

 springs — and gave those who sat within it " the appear- 

 ance of a stiff Guy Fawkes uneasily seated." But this 

 is a satiric touch, surely. To get on to the roofs, how- 

 ever. These generally rose into a swelling curve, which 

 was sometimes surrounded by a high iron guard, after 

 the manner of our more modern four-wheeled cabs. 

 The coachman and the guard (who always held his 

 carbine ready cocked upon his knee — an attitude which 

 must have made inside passengers wish they had insured 

 their lives) then sat together over a very long and narrow 

 boot which passed under a large spreading hammercloth 

 hanging down on all sides, and furnished with a most 

 luxuriant fringe. Behind {he coach was the immense 

 basket, stretching far and wide beyond the body to which 

 it was attached by long iron bars or supports passing 

 beneath it. I am not surprised to learn that these 

 baskets were never very great favourites, though their 

 difference of price caused them to be frequently filled — 

 but another proof of needs must when the devil drives 



. And as for the motion of these Flying coaches 



when well on the road, it was " as a ship rocking or 

 beating against a heavy sea ; straining all her timbers, 

 with a low moaning sound as she drives over the con- 

 tending waves." With which extraordinary simile we 

 may leave Flying Machines behind us — and any de- 

 scription of their successors too. For are not the models 

 of the crack coaches in coaching's primest age to be seen 

 every day in Piccadilly ? They are — and some very 

 delightful rides can be had in them too. 



Not that travelling in these perfected turn-outs was 

 always like riding on a bed of roses, as I have had occa- 

 sion frequently to point out, which consideration brings 

 me to the inevitable comparison of the advantages of rail 

 versus road. On which great subject much can be said 

 on both sides, as a celebrated Attorney-General for 

 Honolulu once remarked. De Ouincey, for instance, 

 may talk of the "fine fluent motion of the Bristol Mail," 



