DOWN THE ROAD 119 



The very idea was insupportable, and the Oxonians 

 settled the matter hy declaring that coach travellers had 

 long laboured under a misapprehension as to the relative 

 places on a coach, and that "the roof of the coach, which 

 hy some weak men had been called the attics, and hy 

 some the garrets, was in reality the drawing-room; in 

 which drawing-room the box was the chief ottoman or 

 sofa; whilst it appeared that the inside, which had been 

 traditionally regarded as the only room tenable by 

 gentlemen, was, in fadl, the coal-cellar or garrets in 

 disguise." 



Did they require a precedent for their choice they 

 found it in the historic example of the Chinese Emperor, 

 who received a coach as a present from George III, a 

 gift which stirred his pigtailed subjects to the depths. 

 Anxious to create a sensation, and satisfy the curiosity 

 of his people the Emperor decided to make a state 

 progress. Horses were harnessed to the coach, and 

 everything was ready, when a difficulty arose, for as a 

 coach had never been used before no one knew the exa6l 

 place which the Emperor should occupy. The matter 

 was settled by traditional etiquette, it being clearly 

 proved that as the Emperor was far too exalted a per- 

 sonage to sit behind or below anybody, much less his 

 coachman, evidently the box-seat with its gorgeous 

 hammer-cloth was the place expressly designed for him. 

 The Emperor mounted the box with immense dignity, 

 but the imperial hands with their preposterous finger 

 nails could not touch anything so menial as the reins. 



The coachman then desired to know where he was to 



