Prosperous Coaching Days. 33 



But I was speaking of our journeys in 

 search of good horses, and of the long rides 

 which taxed the physical powers and endur- 

 ance of the strongest, but which we then took 

 as quite a matter of course. Those were the 

 days before the swift and comfortable railway 

 travelling to which the present generation is 

 accustomed, when the journey had to be done 

 on horseback or by coach, and on the latter, 

 no matter how cold or stormy the weather, we 

 should have scorned to ride inside. 



At that time the Great North Eoad was a 

 busy highway indeed, when the rattle of one 

 coach and the merry sound of the coach- 

 guard's horn had scarcely died away ere you 

 saw the approach of another ; and, in passing, 

 I might here mention that my native town of 

 Biggleswade, during that period of coaching 

 activity, waxed comfortably fat and prosperous 

 upon the continuous stream of travellers 

 passing through on their way up or down the 

 country. There were some large stables of 

 coach horses kept at Biggleswade when I was 

 a lad ; notably, I remember when the " Rose," 



