A CHAPTER OF ANECDOTES. 157 



eleven outside, besides the coachman. I do not know 

 the wording- of the Act, but I do not think any coach 

 should carry more than eighteen, and I think you could 

 be pulled for exceeding that number. I have constantly 

 left people behind at the " Cellar " and down the road, 

 because I decline to carry passengers on the roof, i.e. 

 more than fourteen outside. I do not think it is fair 

 upon your other passengers, your cattle, or your coach 

 springs.' He inveighed (as all thorough-going coachmen 

 ever will inveigh) most strongly against the practice, 

 which some proprietors still adopt, I am sorry to see, of 

 carrying a seat on the roof, than which nothing looks 

 more unsightly or is more uncoaching. Besides, when 

 your boots are full, where is your luggage to go ? Let 

 me observe here, too, that the true character of the staQfe 

 coach is lost in placing the hind seat on irons, drag 

 fashion, instead of on panel. The hind panel should be 

 there {vide plate of stage coach), and it should carry the 

 name on it. There is something in such names as the 

 ' Age,' ' Telegraph,' ' Quicksilver,' ' Highflyer,' ' Express,' 

 ' Tally-ho,' etc. — deny it who can. I am glad to learn 

 that the sporting proprietor of the ' Old Times,' the Ross 

 and Chepstow stage, Mr. Price Hamilton, intends having 

 his coaches' hind seat thus, displaying the name. 



' Some amusing incidents,' he continues, ' occur, from 

 aristocratic owners being taken for coachmen who live by 

 their trade. An old lady once called to the window a 

 friend of mine, and, showing him half-a- crown, said, " I 

 intend to give you this at the end of the journey, but it 

 must be upon one condition, which is, that I do not see 



