278 ESHEE. 



when the owner, our host, said to me 

 " You take hold of them : you know 

 how to manage them, I know, and I'll 

 sit beside you." 



As the horses were all strangers to me, 

 as well as to one another, I did not 

 vastly like the task. Being eighty-three 

 or eighty-four years old, this gentleman's 

 limbs were not so pliant as they had been. 

 However, he got up on the box, and we 

 started on the road to Kingston, his 

 nephew a man between thirty and forty 

 the coachmaker, and a third person, 

 occupying the roof, the intended drags- 

 man sitting behind, and my father fol- 

 lowing in his buggy. 



At Esher we pulled up at the "Bear," 

 and were greeted by pretty well the 

 whole household of Claremont, who must 

 needs join in the libations that were 

 poured forth to the success of the new 

 drag. This was repeated at the turn- 



