Hunting in the Golden Days. 57 



a lad the duties of guard better than old John. He 

 would impress upon him when he first took him in hand 

 that there were three absolutely necessary qualifica- 

 tions indispensable to a good guard. Firstly, civility ; 

 secondly, despatch ; and thirdly, personal appearance. 

 Consequently, did any guard seek a situation who had 

 been under old John, he never found much difficulty 

 in obtaining one, as the school from which he came was 

 well known for its efficient training. 



In his youth, as I said before, John Klinker had been 

 in Sir John's employ and had ridden second horse. 

 This accounted for his taking so much interest in all 

 matters connected with field sport. On Saturdays he 

 always reserved the box seat for Sir John, who drove to 

 attend the market, and was one of his most regular 

 passengers. On these occasions the old driver was wont 

 to repeat a longish tale of a broken axle, and how 

 most of the passengers were thrown off but not injured. 

 During the recital of this narrative he would continually 

 turn to Sir John and ask him if it were not so, and do 

 you remember this, that, and the other. Sir, much to 

 the old squire's gratification. 



Such was travelling a hundred years ago, before first- 

 class carriages and electricity were in vogue. It was, 

 to my thinking, much less monotonous than travelling 

 in the present day, for on the road there was a constant 

 source of amusement. But those days have disappeared 

 like a dream. Stage coaches, coachmen, yards of tin, gal- 

 loping stages, and cock horses are things of the past, to 

 be read of in books and remembered only by a few. A 

 few old drivers linger on to tell the tales of highway 

 robberies and accidents in snowstorms. But the 

 majority have driven on a journey from which neither 

 coachman nor passenger returns. 



