276 BAD PKOSPECT. 



tions on the past, which I could not 

 scare from my mind, and a restless and 

 not very hopeful -temperament, although 

 it did not altogether deprive me of reason, 

 caused me to commit many unreasonable 

 acts. 



I was prevented in the Spring seeking 

 an appointment by an accident that had 

 nearly put an end to my ever standing 

 in need of one. 



My father's establishment in the City, 

 of which he still retained possession, be- 

 sides the long coaches, was a sort of 

 rendezvous for short stages that is, 

 coaches from places of ten or twenty miles 

 distant, that would come in in the morn- 

 ing, and return in the afternoon and 

 evening. Some dispute had taken place 

 between the Proprietors of the Kingston 

 and Hampton coaches, and an old gentle- 

 man living at Cobham, in Surrey, who 

 had been for a long time connected with 



