140 



COACHING DAYS AND COACHING WAYS 



coaching days for post-horses, victuals, rum and milk, 

 snug bars, and general accommodation of the best old 

 English quality for man and beast ; and another seven 



miles and three 



furlongs bring us 





■^, 



>;' 



into Blandford, 103 

 miles 4 furlongs 

 from Hyde Park 

 Corner, celebrated 

 for a disastrous fire 

 1 73 1, to which 



m 









■ V. 



r 



/.^^/7 ^A^ ','• it owes its present 



handsome appear- 

 ance, and also for 

 having been the 

 scene in 1760 and 

 1762 of some of 

 Gibbon the histor- 

 ian's outings with 

 the Hants Militia ; 

 or, as he more aptly 

 describes it, of'' his 

 wandering life of 

 military servitude." 

 It was on the downs 

 round pleasant and 

 hospitable Bland- 

 ford, in short, that 

 " the discipline and 

 evolutions of a 

 modern battalion " 

 gave the future 

 historian of the 

 Roman empire a 

 clearer notion of 

 the phalanx and the legion, or would have done, may I 

 add ? if the captain of Hampshire grenadiers had not 

 passed so much of his time in the Crown and the Grey- 



/ill /wlhij 





>j 



Excicr. Charles 11 . hid in this House. 



