212 COACHING DAYS AND COACHING WAYS 



times by a subtle alteration of costume? Jos, brilliant 

 in under waistcoats, sporting a military frock coat, 

 clinking his boot spurs, swaggering prodigiously and 

 shooting death glances at all the servant girls who were 

 worthy to be slain ! 



'' ' What shall we do, boys, till the ladies return ? ' he 

 asked. The ladies were out to Rottingdean in his 

 carriage on a drive. 



" ' Let's have a game of billiards,' one of his friends 

 said — the tall one with the lacquered moustachios. 



"'No, dammy ; no. Captain,' Jos replied, rather 

 alarmed. ' No billiards to-day, Crawley, my boy — 

 yesterday was enough.' " 



And then, after various suggestions for killing time, 

 including Jos's, " ' to have some jellies at Button's and 

 kill the gal behind the counter — devilish fine gal at 

 Button's'" — the determination was come to, as is 

 generally known, to go and see the Lightning " come in " 

 — and the advice prevailing over billiards and jelly, the 

 trio turned towards the coach-office. 



It would be impossible to leave Brighton and 

 Thackeray behind us, without recalling another incident 

 detailed by the author of the Four Georges^ this time an 

 historical one, which has to do with a wicked old celebrity, 

 once a well-known figure on the Steyne — with posting, 

 and with the august personage who called posting and 

 coaching to Brighton into fashion — nay, even into life. 

 " In Gilray's caricatures," I quote from \\\^ Four Georges, 

 "there figures a great nobleman called 'Jockey of 

 Norfolk ' in his time, and celebrated for his table exploits. 

 He had quarrelled with the Prince, like the rest of the 

 Whigs, but a sort of reconciliation had taken place ; 

 and now being a very old man, the Prince invited him 

 to dine and sleep at the Pavilion, and the old duke drove 

 over from his castle of Arundel, with his famous equipage 

 of gray horses, still remembered in Sussex." 



A pleasant Bacchanalian scene is then enacted, it \\\\\ 

 be remembered, which began by everybody challenging 



