WAGES AND COACHMEN. 359 



regular stipend is twelve or fourteen, and from this, in 

 some yards, eighteen pence a week is deducted for duty. 

 Mail coachmen on the lower ground (that is, not out of 

 London) receive sixteen shillings a week wages. Al- 

 though the certain income of a coachman appears small, 

 yet those on swell coaches that load well, with two a day, 

 and consequently only one home, make a very comfort- 

 able livelihood — say from two to four hundred pounds a 

 year. Perhaps I could name a few who top the latter 

 sum, but not many. Those who drive into and out of 

 London are allowed the privilege of not entering on the 

 way-bill the passengers they may take up on the first 

 stage off the stones. These they call their short shillings. 

 When I first knew the road, shouldering was very 

 much the fashion — ten times more than it is now. Per- 

 haps there may be some of my readers who do not know 

 what shouldering is ; if so, I am obliged to tell them 

 that it is only a genteel term for robbery : it is putting 

 into our own pockets what ought to go into another 

 person's. A little of it however, is generally winked at 

 by coachmasters — particularly on the night coaches ; for 

 without it, tongue and buckle would not always meet — 

 or, in other words, guard and coachman would some- 

 times be starved. There are other terms for a shoulder- 

 stick, such as, a short one, or a fish ; and another, which 

 is particularly expressive, and was made use of a short 

 time since to a friend of mine. ' You have no luggage, 

 I believe, Sir,' said coachee to him, after having brought 

 him about fifty miles. — ' I have none,' said my friend. — 

 ' Then if you please you shall get down at the turnpike, 



