THE TJFE OF A SPORTSMAN 



Jem ; " but I sliall o-o liali'-way there, and my fellow-serv^ant will 

 take you the other half if you want to go there ; but mind ye, 

 ma'am (looking upwards towards the sky), if it don't rain." 

 " And will it rain. Master Howell ? " asked the silly old woman. 

 " There is onlj^ one person in the world, ma'am, that can answer 

 that question," replied Jem, " and I ar'n't he." ' ^ 



' He booked his passenger, I conclude,' observed Frank Raby. 



' Of course he did,' resumed Hargrave ; ' for Jem never 

 throws a chance away ; and I saw a good scene with him, in that 

 respect, last term. It being a very wet morning, a passenger 

 put his head out of one of the windows of the " Angel Inn," and 

 said, " Where is the coachman of the Birmingham Day ? " 



' " I be here, at your sarvice, sir," answered Jem, who was 

 buckling his reins, at the moment, just ready to mount his box 

 and be off. 



' " Put some straw on the foot-board, on my side of the box," 

 resumed the gentleman. 



' " Beg pardon, sir," continued Jem ; " but I never allows no 

 straw on my foot-board." 



' " You are an insolent scoundrel ! " exclaimed the gentle- 

 man. 



' " This, sir, is not the first time I have been told so," re- 

 sumed Jem ; " but the fact is, I have a mare at wheel, in this 

 here coach, that, if one single straw touched her tail, would 

 kick you off the box in about two seconds ; and here is my 

 master, who will vouch for the truth of what I have been 

 saying." ' 



^ This anecdote can only be appreciated by those who are aware of the 

 troul)lesome, stupid questions put l»y the travelling public to road-coachmen. 

 This woman knew Howell drove the Oxford and Birmingham day coach six 

 days in the week, as well as he himself did ; so that the question was put merely 

 for the sake of asking it, as many others are. Howell's questions, on the other 

 hand, were always to the point ; and that i)ut to his master, Mr. Costar, relat- 

 ing to the coach he had so long l)een driving, is a fair sample : — 'Do you think, 

 xir, my coach would be missed on the road if it did not start to-day ? ' Mr. Costar 

 agreed with Jem in thinking it wonld not ; and it stopped. The fact was, the 

 coaches running throughout, from London to Birmingham, in a day, took most 

 of its passengers. It is much to be lamented that there is no portrait of this 

 excellent servant and true specimeu of the old road coachman, an order of men 

 soon only to be known to have existed. He died Avortli £10,000, and as one 

 proof of the estimation in which his character as a confidential and honest 

 servant was held, Mr. Ansley, of Bletchington Park, kept .a liorse in Oxford 

 for his use in the summer ; and a knife and fork were always at his service in 

 the steward's room at Bletchington, on Sundays, the year round. 



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