256 ANNALS OF THE ROAD. 



to the superiority of Dan on his coach box. I got up at 

 Lichfield, and as we were approaching the town of 

 Stafford he addressed me thus ; ' Now, Master, we shall 

 give you a hot shirt over this next ground. My horses 

 are bad enough at the best of times, but they have been 

 out all night at Lord Bagot's ball, with two rumbling 

 gentlemen's coaches at their tails, so they'll be in nice 

 tune for us.' I have the team in my mind's eye at this 

 moment ; but suffice it to say, I got them about half 

 their ground, when we were all done over together. 

 Dan took hold of them, and made up the ground which 

 I had lost, with very little punishment. This mail is 

 two miles an hour a better coach than it was ; but in the 

 days of my working upon it, the roads were in a miser- 

 able state — full a horse's draught heavier than they are 

 at present. 



Dan Herbert, I am happy to say, is still at work, and 

 those who have travelled with him, as well as all others 

 who respect a good coachman, will be glad to hear the 

 following account of him, which I had the other day 

 from a friend, an excellent judge : ' Old Dan is alive, 

 and hearty as ever. He is now, and has been for the last 

 three years, driving the Chester and Liverpool mail, and 

 I think I may say as much alive and as active as ever ; 

 and, judging from a journey I went with him last year, I 

 consider him better than ninety-nine out of a hundred 

 coachmen you see ; and his age must be considerably 

 above sixty. His son Tom, who lived with Mr. Cox, is 

 now on the Liverpool and Chester coach, but is about to 

 take to Mrs. Tomlinson's business, the ' White Lion,' at 



