NIGHT WORK. 347 



left a good bottle of wine and a blazing fire to get on a 

 coach-box in wet cold nights ; and used to say that, If 

 I were to go upon the road, I would be a night coachman 

 through a well inhabited country. For six months of 

 the year it is undoubtedly the pleasanter service, and I 

 never found any difference between taking my rest by 

 day or by night. It is, however, only calculated for a 

 man quite in the prime of his days, as all his energies are 

 wanted. He ought also to know his line of road well ; 

 for lamp-light, as I have before observed, is rather 

 treacherous — not only in fogs, but when horses are going 

 at a moderate pace (as up hill), with the wind just 

 behind them, when the steam arising from their bodies 

 follows them, and necessarily obstructs the light. I was 

 once lost owing to this circumstance, and obliged to pull 

 up my coach, but no accident arose. Accidents often 

 occur from coachmen neglecting to light their lamps in 

 going into a town. It is constantly happening that, 

 when a coach comes up the road in the morning, there 

 may be no obstruction in the streets ; but rubbish from 

 buildings, stones, or many other things, may be thrown 

 out by the time she comes down again at night. It was 

 from this cause that Mr. Dennis had his thigh broken' 

 the winter before last in the town of Brentford on his 

 Bath coach. 



The following rules are worth observing by night 

 coachmen : — Take your rest regularly, or you will be 

 sure to become drowsy, if you do not go to sleep ; keep 

 yourself sober ; keep a tight hand on your horses, your 

 eye well forward, and get out of the way of carts and 



