THE ROAD. 
unhappy coachmen of five-and-twenty years back have 
gone on, wearing out their breeches with the bumping 
of the old coach-box, and their stomachs with brandy, 
had not Mr. Ward, of Squerries, after many a weary 
endeavour, persuaded the proprietors to place their 
boxes upon springs the plan for accomplishing which 
was suggested by Mr. Roberts, nephew to the then 
proprietor of the White Horse, Fetter Lane, London, 
but now of the Royal Hotel, Calais ? What would the 
Devonshire road have been, but for the late Sir Charles 
Bamfylde, Sir John Rogers, Colonel Prouse, Sir Law- 
that has elapsed without a single accident to his coach, his passengers, or 
himself, and during which time, with the exception of a very short absence 
from indisposition, he has driven his sixty-five miles every day, making 
somewhere about twenty-three thousand miles a year. The numerous 
patrons of the coach entered into a subscription to present him with a piece 
of plate ; and accordingly a beautiful cup, bearing the shape of an antique 
vase, and cover, ornamented with rich handles, composed of scrolls arid 
foliage, the cover surmounted by a beautifully modelled horse, with a coach 
and four horses on one side, and a suitable inscription on the other, was 
presented to Mr. Holmes by that staunch patron of the road, Sir Henry 
Peyton, Bart., in August last, at a dinner at the Thatched House Tavern, 
St. James's Street, to which between forty and fifty gentlemen sat down. 
The cup was manufactured by Messrs. Green and Ward, and the list of 
subscribers amounted to upwards of two hundred and fifty, including among 
others the Duke of Wellington, and indeed all persons of rank, business, or 
pleasure, whose vocations call them in the direction that the coach travels. 
We see by ' Bell's Life in London,' a paper that has uniformly devoted 
itself to the patronage of this useful class of men, that a handsome salver is 
yet to be presented to this fortunate and deserving coachman, at Oxford. 
We feel assured that this nattering distinction will have its due in- 
fluence in all parts of the country, and we wish Mr. Holmes many years 
of health and prosperity to enjoy the reward of his long and meritorious 
services." Extract from the " New Sporting Magazine " for November, 
1835, p. 68. 
109 
