COACH PROPRIETORS 113 



again and catching hold of the horses led them up the 

 yard. 



"Whose horses are those?" inquired Mr. Costar mildly. 



"They belong to old Costar of Oxford," was the reply. 



"Oh, they do, do they!" thought "old Costar," and 

 followed them to their stables. There, to his chargin 

 he beheld his horses put into dirty stalls, without any 

 vestige of bedding, and with empty mangers. The man 

 then considered he had done his duty to "old Costar's" 

 horses, for he left them without any pretence of rubbing 

 them down, or even removing their harness. 



Mr. Costar drove back to Oxford and straightway 

 consulted his solicitor, with the result that the horse- 

 keeper in Chequers Inn soon found himself in Reading 

 Gaol undergoing a sentence of twelve months' hard 

 labour. 



In 1767 John Alder, a cooper of Abingdon, drew a 

 lottery prize of twenty thousand pounds. On hearing 

 the news he "supported himself with great Decency," 

 and was so lavish in his benefactions, that his wife said 

 the money would be their ruin for her husband would 

 give away everything they had. To his friend Mr. 

 Blewitt, owner of the "Abingdon Machine," Alder pre- 

 sented a new coach. The delighted proprietor had a 

 pi6lure painted of it, with himself and his wife on the 

 box-seat. This painting now hangs on the staircase of 

 the Council Chamber at Abingdon. 



8 



