STAGE-COACHES 27 



the next stage, however, their pleasant dreams were 

 rudely dispelled, for the inconsiderate passenger in 

 the Basket protested that he was no highwayman and, 

 being able to prove incontestably that this was indeed 

 so, they were relu6lantly obliged to release him. 



The coachmen of those days regarded the highway- 

 man with no unfriendly eye, and were suspe6led of 

 being occasionally in league with him. That they made 

 good bargains with the innkeepers is beyond doubt, 

 and the coach passengers dined, slept, breakfasted and 

 consumed frequent draughts of ale not by any means at 

 the best inns, but at those the coachmen arbitrarily 

 decreed that they should patronize, and where they were 

 often overcharged and ill-catered for. The coachman 

 being a person of much authority on the road, his vi6lims 

 grumbled but submitted, fearing worse to come, like the 

 coach passengers in "The Beaux Stratagem": 



Landlord: "The Company of the Warrington coach 

 has stood in the hall this hour, and nobody 

 to show them to their chambers . . . they 

 threaten to go to another inn." 



Cherry: "That they dare not, for fear the coachman 

 should overturn them to-morrow." 



Once, being stirred up to revolt by a companion of 

 more than ordinary braveness, the passengers marched 

 boldly out of the tavern sele£led for them, and walked 

 along the road till they came to one which took their 

 fancy better. The coachman, furious at this flagrant 

 rebellion, determined to give them a lesson, mounted his 

 box and drove past the house where they were refreshing 



