DANGERS OF THE ROAD. 55 



CHAPTER XII. 



DANGERS OF THE ROAD. 



That the road was not a pleasure to all, and chiefly in 

 consequence of the existence of galloping coaches and 

 amateur coachmen, may be gathered from the following 

 letter entitled ' The Road and its Dangers ' which ap- 

 peared in the 'Sporting Magazine' for October 1822. 

 The ' Old Traveller ' certainly has not a very high opinion 

 of the road as a gentlemanly pastime ; and his fears of a 

 ' case ' may not have been without foundation. 



' I have long considered your entertaining miscellany 

 as the only vehicle for all that is passing in the sporting 

 world worthy of record ; but you have lately quitted the 

 field, and got where many before you have made a con- 

 spicuous figure, namely, on the road. Who your corre- 

 spondent Nimrod is, I do not pretend to conjecture ; but 

 I dare say he is one of those gentlemen coachmen, who a 

 few years ago, not much to the credit of the English 

 nation, and with a kind of perverted ambition, figured 

 away through our streets in processions, on their road to 

 Salt- Hill, or some other place of resort, in their white hats, 

 and upper benjamins, driving their four spanking horses, 

 in close imitation of their inferiors. Mr. Nimrod, I hear 



