68 ANNALS OF THE ROAD. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



COACHING IN THE NORTH OF ENGLAND. 



Fifty years ago, the state of coaching in remote country 

 districts, and especially in the northern counties, presented 

 in many respects a great contrast to its state near London. 

 The progress of improvement had been much slower, 

 and the country turn-outs were not so ' bang-up ' as the 

 London ones. 



' The build of the coaches,' says Nimrod, 1 who, in 

 1827 took the York coach at Leeds, ' the manufacture 

 of the harness, and the stamp and condition of the horses 

 are greatly inferior in these northern counties ; and as 

 for the coachmen, I saw but four at all deserving that 

 appellation. The man who drove us on the day I am 

 speaking of reminded me more of a Welsh drover than 

 anything else. He had neither gloves, boots, nor gaiters, 

 although the day was cold, which at first excited my 

 surprise ; but when I found that he only drove one ten- 

 mile stage, I ceased to wonder, as a glass of gin on 

 leaving the town, one on the road, and towelling his 

 wheel horses, kept his blood on the move for the short 

 time he was at work. As I sat by the side of him he 



1 ' Yorkshire Tour.' 



