28o ANNALS OF THE ROAD. 



ever see Sir Andrew Barnard on the bench, but he is 

 very fond of the thing, and is what the world calls ' a 

 capital fellow.' He has been a good deal at work in 

 another line with his Grace the Duke of Wellington in 

 the held of battle. Mr. Blake also has been some time 

 abroad, but is a very neat coachman. 



Mr. John Walker is well known to the public as 

 having horsed and driven a Bognor coach for the period 

 of nearly two years. His brother, Mr. Richard Walker, 

 of Mitchel Grove (once the property of Sir John Shelley, 

 and pronounced by the late King to be the best house in 

 England), also horsed the same coach one side of the 

 ground, but did not drive it, and they had separate 

 stables and different changes on the road. This lark, 

 however, did not last two years, I conclude for the best 

 of reasons. All those acquainted with coaching are 

 aware that, where the returns are limited, expenses 1 must 

 be limited also, and that all above forty pounds given for 

 coach horses is seldom seen again, as, upon the average, 

 they do not last to work it out. Messrs. Walkers' 

 Bognor coaches, however, were worked in most superior 

 style, and it is allowed on all hands that they set the ex- 

 ample of neatness and comfort to many others. Their 

 outside seats were all furnished with easy cushions for 

 passengers to sit upon, and the hoops of the box and the 

 roof-irons padded, so as not to hurt their hips. All this, 

 however, would not do. A coach is but a coach after 

 all, and, unless the sixpences be turned into ninepences, 



1 There was also a strong opposition to contend with from the Golden 

 Cross, and the Ship, Charing Cross. 





