THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 



selves the same length of time to perform the twenty-four miles 

 of gi''ound. 



'Now, Jem,' said Jack Webber, after passing the park gates, 

 ' let us have a little of your history. By the colour on your 

 cheeks, you appear to be all the better for the Baronet's good 

 cheer, and, as I said before, your tongue ' will slip over the 

 ground like a newly-greased wheel.' 



' My history,' said Jem, ' is told in a few words. I have been 

 a road coachman these three-and-thirty years, and never lay 

 rest, thank God, more than a dozen journeys in all that time, 

 except when I broke my leg, and had my right foot frost-bitten. 

 Then I had — like you gentlemen, who goes to school and college 

 to fit you for your situations — the regular education of a 

 coachman. I did not jump from off some country gentleman's 

 pair-horse coach-box, or from behind a counter in a coach-office, 

 or, perhaps, that of a grocer's shop, on to a stage-coach, as 

 some of our present would-be coachmen have done, and who 

 hardly knows a coupling-rein from a bearing-rein, still less 

 what a horse can do in his harness ; but I began my education 

 by riding the leaders before my father, on the heavy Brummagem, 

 for better than three years. TJtat's the 'place for a young "man 

 to learn Ids business — before a good coachman, as my father 

 was, and a coach that carries three ton weight, as that often 

 did, in roads over the fellies of the wheels, and none of the 

 best of cattle. Then, I have never had but one master and 

 one coach since I have been regular at work, now going on 

 for thirty-four years.' 



' Are you married ? ' asked Lord Edmonston. 



' No, my Lord,' replied Jem ; ' I was near being Jtad once, but 

 I slipped out on't, and took care never to run my head into 

 that tliere collar again ; I feared it might prove what we calls 

 " a false one." ' 



' But what has been your objection to the married state ? ' 

 resumed Lord Edmonston. 



' Why, to tell you the truth, my Lord,' answered Jem, ' I have 

 more than one objection to it. In the first place, a gentleman 

 who sat by me on the box, many years ago, made use of these 

 words to a passenger who sat behind him on the roof, and they 

 made such an impression on me that, if I was to live a thousand 

 years, I should never forget them : — *' The ancients," he said, 

 " are clearly against the female sex, and the moderns are not 



302 



