ON COACHMEN. 265 



there is to each a charm that belongs peculiarly to the 

 road, which cheers all who are on it. They have their 

 favourite houses of call — they have the smile and good 

 wishes of the people whose habitations they pass by, and 

 many snug things besides known only to themselves. If 

 a coachman is good-looking, or agreeable, it does not 

 require a wise man to find out the many kind looks 

 bestowed upon him from the windows of the towns he 

 passes through. It is in his power also to be a sort 

 of magnet to his coach ; and, if he respects himself, no 

 man in the middle career of life is more respected by 

 others. 



Philosophers tell us, that wit consists in quickly 

 assembling our ideas, and putting them together in an 

 instant. Now, as analogy is but the resemblance 

 between things with regard to circumstances or effects, 

 may there not exist something like analogy betwixt 

 putting ideas together quickly, and putting four horses to 

 a coach in sixty seconds of time ? Certain, however, is 

 it that, as far as my observation has led me, the faster the 

 coach the more sharp and ready is the coachman with all 

 his remarks and replies. Time, it must be admitted, will 

 not allow him to be verbose ; but several fast coachmen 

 of the present day have a happy knack of compressing 

 into a small compass whatever they may have to say, that 

 would not disgrace the best rhetorician of the age. One 

 of the most agreeable evenings I ever passed in my life 

 was in the society of Gentleman Taylor of the South- 

 ampton ' Telegraph,' who, exclusive of his excellent sing- 

 ing, kept the table in a roar by the many sharp things he 



