20 



AN OLD FRIEND AND A NEW FACE. 



To the Editor of the " Exeter and Plymouth Gazette" 

 SIR, 



You will oblige me by inserting the following in your paper, which may 

 be amusing to some of your readers : 



It is a fact well known that when the subscription coaches started, in the year 

 1812, William Hanning, Esq., a magistrate of the county of Somerset, residing 

 near Ilminster, was a strenuous advocate for their support, and it was in great 

 measure owing to his exertions that they were established. This gentleman, from 

 some motive or other, or perhaps from his known fondness for new speculations, is now 

 the avowed supporter of a new coach, called, above all other names, the " Defiance," 

 and it is professedly meant as an opposition to the subscription coaches. It started 

 from Exeter for the first time on Sunday, April i3th, 1823. One really would 

 have supposed that under such patronage a name better calculated to keep the 

 peace of his Majesty's liege subjects, and to preserve harmony and good-will among 

 men, would have been adopted for this coach, and that some other day might have 

 been selected for its first appearance. However, the " Defiance " started on the 

 Sunday afternoon, amidst the shouts and imprecations of guards, coachmen, and 

 ostlers, contending one against the other, and having one ill-looking outside 

 passenger, whose name was Revenge. 



An interesting occurrence took place at Ilminster. The new "Defiance" 

 was expected to arrive there, on its way from town, between nine and ten on the 

 Sunday morning, and it was determined to honour it with ringing the church bells. 

 The heroes of the belfry were all assembled, every man at his rope's end, " their 

 souls on fire, and eager for the fray ;" the Squire was stationed about a mile from 

 Ilminster, and seeing the coach, as he thought, coming at a distance, he galloped 

 through the street in triumph, gave the signal, and off went the merry peal. Every 



