ON COACHMEN. 



more than is usual, and his right arm was terrible. He 

 was a jovial fellow over a bowl, singing many excellent 

 sono-s, but was booked in the down mail about a month 

 since, on a road on which there is no turning back. In 

 many essentials to a coachman, he has left few equals 

 behind him. 



There are two or three more of the old school whose 

 names should be recorded in the Annals of the Road, as 

 having arrived at the top of their profession, and whose 

 characters have been free from stain. Of John Besford, 

 on the Exeter ' Subscription,' I have already spoken in 

 terms of high respect ; and I must here pay a tribute to 

 the memory of the late Jack Hale, a coachman of extra- 

 ordinary merit, and a man of excellent natural talent. 

 He was also on the Manchester ' Defiance,' but latterly 

 worked upon the lower Oxford road, and was one of the 

 quickest of his day. I remember hearing a friend of 

 mine say in the presence of Mr. Kenyon, that he went 

 down Henley hill on Jack Hale's coach, in a hard frost, 

 without the chain on the wheel, but, added he, ' I did 

 not like it.' — ' Oh,' said Mr. Kenyon, 'you were as safe 

 as when in your bed.' Jack was chief manager, and 

 one of the founders of the Benevolent Club, 1 and much 

 looked up to by the fraternity. 



Of the late Jack Bailey, on the Birmingham and 

 Shrewsbury Old ' Prince of Wales,' the tutor of so many 

 of us, I have already spoken as quite a top-sawyer of the 

 old school. When he died, he left his watch to Sir 

 Henry Peyton, who wears it to this day, though -with a 



1 See pp. 66 and 1 19. 



