S6 THE BATH ROAD 



Countess of Warwick, tlie mistress of that splendid 

 mansion, wliicli happily yet remains ; but stole away 

 to this more congenial haunt, and drank his intellect 

 away. 



Beyond this, all was country road, in the coaching 

 days, until Hammersmith was reached. The first 

 outpost of that now unsavoury place was a rural inn 

 called the " Red Cow," opposite Brook Green. 



The " Red Cow," pulled down December, 1897, 

 rejoiced once upon a time in the reputation of being 

 a house of call for the peculiar gentry who in- 

 fested the suburban reaches of the great western 

 highways out of London. It was not by any means 

 the resort of the aristocracy of the profession of 

 highway robbery ; but a place where the cly-fakers, 

 the footpads, and the lower strata of thievery fore- 

 gathered to learn the movements of travellers and 

 retail them to the fine gentlemen who, mounted on 

 the best of horses, and clad in gorgeous raiment, 

 occupied the higher walks of the art at a safer distance 

 down the road. The house was built in the sixteenth 

 century, and was a quaint, though unpretending 

 roadside tavern with a high-pitched, reel-tiled roof. 

 It possessed vast stables, for it was situated, in early 

 coachiuQT davs, at the end of the first stage out of 

 London. It may well be imagined, then, that the 

 stable-yard was a scene of constant excitement in the 

 good old days, for here were kept a goodly supply of 



