^he 1 rotter, 117 



encased in fustian overhauls — completed the attire of one of the 

 neatest-dressed, most obliging, and gentlemanly old coachmen of 

 his day in England. When his well-shaped buckskin glove was off, 

 a plain black and gold mourning ring gave an aristocratic finish to 

 .a hand as clean, as white, and as well-shaped as a lady's. 



I never heard his early history, nor did anyone in our part know 

 it, but I gathered from occasional slips in his conversation that he 

 was born to fill a higher station than the box of a coach 3 and his 

 manners, with all the true genuine poHsh of the old school — and 

 two or three exquisite Httle studies of hounds, and one favourite 

 hunter, done in oils, which graced the walls of his little parlour — all 

 bespoke the fact. 



He had come down to our little town from London some ten 

 years previously, and started the old ^^ Regulator" on his own 

 account. He drove the whole journey up and down himself, on 

 each alternate day j and as " three wheels and the hind boot of the 

 coach *' belonged to him, and as he was an accommodating ola 

 fellow, wiUing to obhge anyone, and a great favourite with all the 

 gentry and farmers round us, his coach was always fuU j and it was 

 wonderful to witness what a miscellaneous freight the old Regulator 

 used to carry. 



She was truly and Hterally speaking a family coach. Anxious 

 mothers would trust their children up and down to school with old 

 Johffe, and feel quite satisfied that the old man would treat them 

 as a father ^ and jolly country farmers would hand over their wives 

 and daughters to his charge with every confidence that they would 

 be well looked after on their journey. The jovial squire would 

 stop the coach himself at the park gates with, "Well, Frank, you 

 have not forgotten that little bit of fish j" and the pretty barmaid 

 of the Cross Keys would exclaim with her sweetest smile, as he 

 handed over to her across the bar counter a mysterious-looking brown 

 paper parcel (not, however, a crinoline then), " AVell, now, that is 

 kind of you," and bustle away to fill him a glass of the best pale 

 sherry, the only liquor the old boy ever tasted. Everybody on the 

 road seemed to know him, ^nd everybody respected him. This sort 



