THE ROAD IN A STORM. 293 



along in its strong, fitful gusts. It is market-day in Wararinster, 

 and, as I go out, every body and every thing else seems to be 

 coming in. Men, women, and children, in all sorts of English 

 vehicles spring-carts, taxed-carts, great broad-wheeled carts, or 

 long wagons, with bodies of a curious curved form flaring out 

 over the wheels, canvas tops, stretched over all, upon hoops ; 

 sometimes two horses abreast, drawing them in a double set of 

 shafts ; oftener two or three, and frequently four, five, or six, all 

 in a line (tandem), great, intelligent beasts, keeping well to the 

 left, where none will interfere with them, and they can legally 

 harm no one. (" Keep the left," is the rule of the road in Eng- 

 land ; not the right, as with us.) They are driven without reins ; 

 and more than once this morning I saw the driver, well dosed 

 with beer, I suppose, and fatigued with night-work, fast asleep on 

 the top of his load. Once I saw a gentleman, who had nearly 

 run against one of these sleeping fellows, strike him smartly with 

 his whip as he passed "You had best wake up, sir; who's your 



master?" "Mr. , of , sir," answered the man, rubbing 



himself. " Very well ; I shall let him know what sort of a carter 

 he has." A Yankee driver, so waked up, would have replied to 

 the whip first, perhaps. Gentlemen come at a spanking pace, in 

 dog-carts, or in the saddle, screwing their heads as deep as they 

 can into their drab coats, bending low, and their hats pulled down 

 tight upon their brows, hardly ever with an umbrella, but with a 

 groom with gold hat-band by their side sometimes. They look 

 scowlingly, as they approach, at me ; with my hat-brim turned 

 up before and down behind to shed the water from my face, my 

 water-proof cape tightly fastened at my waist behind, and swell- 

 ing and fluttering before, my arms folded under it, I return their 

 inquiring stare complacently ; some, as they come up, draw their 

 lips resolutely tighter, and give me about quarter of a nod, as if 

 they understood and approved my arrangement. Men on foot, 



