WAGES AND COACHMEN. 363 



of them has his horses in hand, and they sit on their 

 boxes as if they were sitting on something else. 



As Black Will says, I suppose I am ' beginning to 

 see danger ; ' for I confess I am now not comfortable on 

 a fast coach with an awkward fellow on the box, though 

 I care not what pace I go with a workman. I would 

 almost as soon be with Mr. Mytton x in a gig — and that 

 is no joke. I had a turn with him three years ago for 

 the last time. We had only four hours to go forty-three 

 miles in, or lose our dinners; and twenty minutes allowed 

 for lunch. We did it ; but not without breaking a shaft, 

 knocking down a bullock, having one horse on his head, 

 and jumping, gig and all, over a good fence. 



I have already observed that, as a set-off against 

 want of skill, we have now one good security, and that is, 

 we seldom hear of a coachman drunk. This was too 

 much the case in the Old School, and the effect of hard 

 living on the night coachmen operated strongly against 

 them, and produced numerous accidents. Some ten or a 

 dozen years ago, it was common to hear such a dialogue 

 as the following amongst members of this fraternity : — 

 ' A bad job that, last night, with the heavy " Gloucester " ! 

 how was it ? ' — ' Why, some says Joe was asleep.' — ' Was 

 he lushy ?' — ' No, he warn't drunk, nor he warn't sober ; 

 the liquor was a dying in him like' 



There is a certain weakness in human nature which 

 is ever desirous of looking into futurity. The coachmen 

 of the Old School were somewhat touched with the same 



1 The eccentric 'Jack' Mytton of Halston, Salop. See his Life by 

 Nimrod. — Ed. 



