rather trying for a beginner. But Fortune favoured me ; and I drove His 

 Majesty's Mail for nearly five years without an accident. I was then 

 promoted to the " Quicksilver," Devonport Mail, the fastest at that time 

 out of London. It must be admitted that I undertook this task under 

 difficult circumstances involving as it did, sixty miles a night since 

 many had tried it ineffectually, or at all events were unable to accomplish 

 the duty satisfactorily. It is gratifying to me to reflect, that I drove this 

 coach more than seven years without a single mishap. 



Getting at length rather tired of such incessant and monotonous 

 nightly work, I applied for a change to my employer, the well-known 

 and much-respected Mr. Chaplin, who at that time had seventeen hundred 

 horses employed in coaching. His reply was characteristic. " I cannot 

 find you all day coaches," said he ; " besides, who am I to get to drive 

 your Mail ?" I must say, I thought this rather severe at the time, but, 

 good and kind-hearted man as he was, he did not forget me. 



Not long after this interview, the Brighton Day Mail being about to 

 start, he made me the offer, to drive the whole distance and horse the coach 

 a stage, with the option of driving it without horsing. Like most young 

 men I was rather ambitious, and closed with the former conditions. The 

 speculation, however, did not turn out a very profitable one, and, the 

 railway making great progress, I sold my horses to Mr. Richard Cooper, 

 who was to succeed me on the box. I was then offered the far-famed 

 Exeter " Telegraph," one of the fastest and best-appointed coaches in 

 England. My fondness for coaching still continuing, and not feeling dis- 

 posed to settle to any business, I drove this coach from Exeter to 

 Ilminster and back, a distance of sixty-six miles, early in the morning and 

 late at night. After driving it three years, the railway opened to Bridge- 

 water ; this closed the career of the once-celebrated " Telegraph." But 

 those who had so long shared its success, were not inclined to knock 



