I20 The Trotter, 



hind boot (which, wonderful to say, was empty on this journey), and 

 sold them to a pork butcher near Islington. He dare hardly bring 

 them into London. Unfortunately, a little of the straw left in the 

 bottom of the boot told its own tale. I should never have known this 

 had I not been standing at tlie Peacock one evening about Christmas 

 to see the old man come up. He was, as usual, two hours behind his 

 time. A group of cads and rough fellows, whom we always see 

 hanging about such places, were gathered close to my elbow. 

 When the lamps of the old Regulator bore in sight, one of 

 the roughest of the lot was the first to notice it, and he 

 communicated the fact to his fellows in the following com- 

 plimentary sentence, growled out in a voice husky with gin and 

 London fog, '' Here comes the old Slow and Dirty. I wonder 

 whether old Boat Tiles got any more pigs up to-night !" 



However, with all her faults, the old Regulator was a safe coach, 

 and, notwithstanding all the " bokickers " which helped to swell her 

 team, very little went wrong on the road. Moreover, she paid well j 

 and as most of her customers and passengers were regular ones, who 

 all knew and liked her old driver, if a complaint from an outsider 

 did reach head-quarters, it was taken very little notice of by the 

 coach-masters, who worked the old coach the two first stages out of 

 London. 



Well, as I said before, it was on tlie box of this old coach that I 

 took my first lessons in singing, and, I may add, in driving also ; for 

 as soon as we were well clear of the place where we changed, it 

 generally used to be this : " Here, catch hold of 'em j we'U change 

 places now and have a little harmony." 



Our first song, as soon as I got the horses well together, was the 

 *' Trotting Horse," and the driving and singing-lesson commenced 

 after this wise : '' Now, keep that off'-side leader well in hand." Old 

 Boy sings : ** I ride as good a trotting-horse." "There, don't you see 

 that near wheeler's doing all the work ?" — " as any man in town." 

 "Have you got that right?" "He'll trot you sixteen miles an 

 nour." "Keep that oft- wheeler up to his collar." "I'll bet a 

 hundred pound," and so on 3 and the " Trotting Horse " usually 



