RACING. 207 



scent, before you come on what is called the 

 New Road, and a verdict of manslaughter 

 was returned against the drivers of the 

 Holyhead mail, and of the Chester. They, 

 it appeared, had been racing; and one, 

 in endeavouring to pass the other on the 

 wrong side, was driven up the bank, 

 and consequently overturned into the 

 road. They were both committed to jail at 

 St. Albans, to await their trial at the next 

 Hertford assizes; and as they were both 

 old servants of my father's or mine one of 

 them, too, having married a servant of my 

 mother's I felt interested in their fate, 

 and walked one morning from Redbourn to 

 see them. 



I found them ironed like felons; of 

 this indignity they both complained, and 

 one wept bitterly. It struck me as being 

 very strange that men should be degraded 

 as felons, when their utmost punishment, if 

 convicted, could not exceed a twelvemonths' 



