ii6 THE COACHING ERA 



and possessed so many advantages that one feels inclined 

 to pity the modern schoolboys who travel by the dull 

 monotony of railways, and miss what must have con- 

 stituted the most joyous part of their great-grandfathers' 

 holidays. The schoolboys evinced an intense interest 

 in the horses, listened with becoming reverence (not 

 accorded to their pastors and masters) to the words of 

 wisdom which were to be culled from the lips of that all- 

 important man, the coachman, scrambled up and down 

 at the changes, and chaffed the stable-boys and chamber- 

 maids, who laughed at their precocity. They knew not 

 the meaning of tedium, for they thoughtfully provided 

 themselves with pop-guns, peas, and other missiles, 

 for the confusion and undoing of all other users of the 

 road. When all else failed they could extraft rapturous 

 joy by throwing pennies through shop windows, and 

 shouting "fire" or "murder" at the top of their voices. 



In Tom Brown's School Days, the guard of the Tally-ho 

 tells how the Rugby boys behaved going to and fro on 

 the coaches. 



"Werry free with their cash is the young gent'm'n. 

 But, Lor' bless you, we gets into such rows all 'long the 

 road, what wi' their pea-shooters, and long whips, and 

 hollering, and upsetting every one as comes by; I'd a 

 sight sooner carry one or two on 'em, sir, as I may be a 

 carryin' of you now, than a coach-load. 'What do they 

 do with the pea-shooters?' inquires Tom. Do wi' 'em! 

 why, peppers every one's face as we comes near, 'cept 

 the young gals, and breaks windows wi' them too, some 

 on 'em shoots so hard. Now 'twas just here last June, 

 as we was a driving up the first-day boys, they was 



