I NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 



departure from it for London, and was told by my brother-in-law 

 that I should find " a character" in the driver of the coach that 

 he had ordered to call at his door for me, to take me to the 

 * little city." " His name ?" inquired I. " Mr. Chomley," an- 

 swered the colonel, "for I assure you he does not think small 

 beer of himself ; but you will find him a most civil and entertain- 

 ing fellow-traveller, and, for all I know to the contrary, a good 

 whip." Of the last-mentioned qualification I soon had an oppor- 

 tunity of judging, for he had a young horse at wheel which was 

 never in a coach before, and he handed him down the hill into 

 Rochester very pushing ground by-the-by in a masterly- way ; 

 particularly so as his mouth was anything but good. Of the first, 

 his colloquial powers, we had a specimen as I was in the act of 

 mounting the box. " Take especial care of this gentleman," said 

 the colonel to him, " if you break his neck you'll have the sport- 

 ing world in mourning." " You may depend upon that, colonel, 

 and of 'myself too" replied Mr. Chomley, as he let his thong fall 

 gently on the young one, to keep him up to his collar, for he was 

 getting somewhat impatient ; and with the old-fashioned whistle 

 through his teeth for Mr. Chomley is of the old school we 

 were off. 



I make it a rule never to say much to a coachman till he is 

 clear of the town which he starts from, as all his attention is 

 wanting in the arrangement of his passengers and their luggage, 

 and many things besides. But I soon found that this was not 

 likely to be one of Mr. Chomley's brightest days, from the answer 

 he gave at our first stop in Rochester, to the usual question, 

 among a certain class of people, of, "How be you, Mr. Chomley?" 

 from a friend who stood in the street. " Why that is more than 

 I can tell you," said Chomley ; " but I've a d d bad head-ache 

 to begin with." The fact was, he had had a blow-out at his cot- 

 tage the night before, with -a few choice spirits like himself, which 

 had been kept up till rather a late hour, and Richard was not 

 himself again. I could, however, discern in the conversation I 

 had with this person on our journey, as well as from the descrip- 

 tion he gave me of his cottage and its contents, that he possessed 

 what has been more profitable to him than a coach-load of wit 

 namely, strong sterling sense, and a very civil tongue although 

 no doubt, with brothers in soul, a smart reply often produces an 

 extra shilling. 



But the cottage with its contents, what can I say of that ? 

 Why, nothing until I accept Mr. Chomley's pressing invitation 

 to inspect it on my next visit to the colonel, when he assured me 

 ! should find in it " as good a bottle of port as any in Kent, and 

 lot a very bad collection of pictures !" 



