COACHING 



and he awakes on a stage which is called the fastest 

 on the journey — four miles of ground, and twelve 

 minutes the time ! The old gentleman starts from 

 his seat, having dreamed the horses were running 

 away with the coach, and so, no doubt, they might 

 be. He is determined to convince himself of the 

 fact, though the passengers assure him ** all's right." 

 ** Don't put your head out of the window," says 

 one of them, '*you will lose your hat to a 

 certainty": but advice is seldom listened to by a 

 terrified man, and next moment a stentorian voice 

 is heard, crying, *'Stop, coachman, stop — I have lost 

 my hat and wig!" The coachman hears him not — 

 and in another second the broad wheels of a road 

 waggon have for ever demolished the lost head- 

 gear.' 



That was the Road at its best : the poetic side 

 we have in mind when we speak of the good old 

 days of coaching. The following passages refer 

 equally to the * golden age ' ; their very baldness 

 has an eloquence of its own. It is true that the 

 winter of 1836-37 is conspicuous in history for the 

 exceptionally heavy snowfall ; but as Nimrod has 

 shown coaching at its best, there is no injustice in 



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