210 ANNALS OF THE ROAD. 



have done it in his tirris. Jack was a long time on this 

 coach, an honest and faithful servant to his employers ; 

 and, as is the lot of many others, who dole out their in- 

 structions to their superiors (without the use of the whip), 

 received a comfortable sinecure for his trouble — the driv- 

 ing club having honoured him with a salary of two hun- 

 dred per annum for his life, on his retiring from the box, 

 though he did not enjoy it more than two years. When 

 a man, long accustomed to travel sixty miles a day on a 

 coach-box, comes to exchange the clear and bracing air 

 which he meets with on the road, for that of a tap-room, 

 hot rum and water, and tobacco-pipes, surrounded by old 

 acquaintances still at work, the chances are much against 

 him, and nature soon says ' enough,' as was the case 

 with him. 



Although taught with the short wheel-rein, yet hav- 

 ing, in my noviciate, been much in the tandem line, and 

 having, when a young one, driven a unicorn curricle for 

 two years, I was compelled to the use of the long one, so 

 that each has been familiar to me in its turn ; and as far 

 as my experience has led me, each has its advantages. 

 As, however, it is a point a good deal contested on the 

 road, I will state, to the best of my ability, their merits 

 and demerits — leaving your readers to decide for them- 

 selves ; only observing, as Sir Roger de Coverley did 

 before me, that ' much maybe said on both sides !' Were 

 I to be asked to drive Shackell's Reading coach, the 

 first stage out of London, I should say, ' Give me the 

 lono- wheel-rein ; ' and if I were to take hold of ' three 

 blind ones and a bolter,' I should prefer the short 



