ON COACHMEN. 267 



hat. ' D n that fellow ! ' said Peer, ' how I should 



like to put the twitch on him and pull his mane.' 



Notwithstanding the innuendos and sneers — natural 

 enough, I admit — of those connected with the press, as 

 well as others, which were directed against gentlemen- 

 coachmen and the different driving clubs, it is to them 

 that the public are mainly indebted for the present excel- 

 lent state of the roads, and the safe and expeditious 

 travelling. This taste for the road produced an inter- 

 course between gentlemen of rank and property and 

 those connected with it, which has been productive of the 

 happiest results. The persons concerned with the ope- 

 rative part of the business — that is to say, road makers, 

 and others having the care of roads, if they have not 

 acted immediately under the directions of these amateurs, 

 have been very greatly benefited by their advance- 

 doubly valuable, as proceeding from their knowledge of 

 what a road ought to be. Let us look at the exertions 

 of Sir Henry Parnell, on the great Holyhead road. 

 Would the worthy Baronet ever have exerted himself 

 with such effect, had he not possessed a knowledge of 

 coaching and everything belonging to the working of a 

 coach, as perfectly as he is known to do ? Let us also 

 look at what Mr. Kenyon, of Pradoe, has done on the 

 same road. I remember — and I have driven it a hundred 

 times both by day and by night — the stage between 

 Shrewsbury and Oswestry (eighteen miles) to be as bad a 

 one as a coach ever travelled over. Part of it was a bed of 

 sand, and there were grips and water-courses on it that 

 were quite dangerous for blind horses, or for night- work. 



