DOWN THE ROAD 129 



ledged, and as quickly set aside. At last you begin upon a 

 leg, and are called off." 



Two sailors travelling on the far-famed Tantivy from 

 Birmingham to London, found the twenty minutes 

 allowed for dinner at the Star Hotel in Oxford all too 

 brief, but as they had paid for it they determined to have 

 it at all costs. When the guard blew his horn to announce 

 that the coach was on the point of starting, one of them 

 seized a loaf of bread, the other a fowl, and bolted for 

 the coach, closely pursued by the outraged waiter who 

 indignantly demanded what they were going to do with 

 the food. 



"Eat 'em, mate," they replied with promptitude. 



"But you are not allowed to take things off the table," 

 protested the waiter. "Eat all you like but pocket none." 



"Well then, you should give us time to do it in," said 

 the sailors not one whit ashamed. "We have paid for our 

 dinner and now we've got it, we mean to eat it." And 

 eat it they did with great enjoyment as the coach drove 

 through Oxford. 



Innkeepers made a good thing of those unfinished 

 coach dinners, for which, moreover, they often charged 

 unduly high prices; as witness the apt rhyme that ran 



thus: 



" The famous Inn at Speedhamland 

 That stands below the hill, 

 May well be called the Pelican ' 

 From its enormous bill." 



Hard, indeed, was the lot of those travellers whose 

 purses were poorly lined, as the passengers on the Paul 

 9 



