252 ANNALS OF THE ROAD. 



new face to it ; for the old one was ornamented with a race 

 horse, a greyhound, a fighting cock, and a bull dog, and Sir 

 Henry's picture in the centre. Jack was also a great ally of 

 the great Mr. John Warde, who worked very frequently on 

 the ' Old Prince ' in former days, and by his own account, 

 brought many a ton of bad shillings 1 into London. Mr. 

 Warde drove this coach a race, from London to Oxford, 

 aeainst the Gloucester coach, and won it. Nothing on 

 the road was better horsed than the ' Prince ' in Bailey's 

 day, for the lpad it carried, and its time ; but it would not 

 be thought much of now. It is still going, and Jobson, 

 one of its coachmen on the lower ground, whose horses I 

 have driven many hundred miles, now keeps the 'Talbot ' 

 inn at Shrewsbury, a house of the first style, and where 

 Mr. Jobson is as much esteemed as he was upon his 

 box. 



There are two or three more artists of the old school 

 who must have a niche here, and I shall commence with 

 Jem Howell, with whom, I have no doubt, at least nine- 

 tenths of my readers are acquainted. Jem is one of Mr. 

 Costar's (of Oxford) oldest servants, and was, the Lord 

 knows how many years, on his Oxford and Birmingham 

 day-coach, driving it as far as Shipston-upon-Stour, after 

 his breakfast, and driving it back again to Oxford in time 

 for his dinner. Now whether it were, that the public 

 thought Jem and his master were only half awake ; or 

 whether it were that they thought they might as well go 



1 This coach was generally very heavily laden with Birmingham hard- 

 ware, and no doubt the Birmingham shillings often made up part of the 

 load. 



