MEMORIES AND REGRETS. 137 



CHAPTER XXVL 



MEMORIES AND REGRETS. 



' Many are there who talk of the delights of travelling 

 in the coaching days of old. They like to recall to mind 

 the memories of the pleasant summer days they spent 

 on the box-seat, chatting with the burly coachman, who, 

 well protected against the possibilities of the weather by 

 innumerable coats, knew every man and every horse he 

 met, and could tell all the news of the country round. 



' They describe in glowing terms the manner in 

 which the mail was taken each morning or evening in 

 the year to the authorised inspector, who examined every 

 inch from the pole to the hind boot, and who critically 

 probed and tested the wheels, axles, linch-pins, springs 

 and glasses : how scrupulously every part was cleaned, 

 and how every horse was groomed with as much pre- 

 cision as if he belonged to the stud of a nobleman. We 

 join in their enthusiasm, and admit that there is much 

 reason for it, when the scenes thus delineated are con- 

 nected with many pleasing associations. " All the world 

 is a stage-coach : it has its insides and its outsides, and 

 coachmen in their time see much fun." (Old Play.) 

 Think of the hundred little incidents by the road, the 



