DOWN THE ROAD 133 



had worn o£F they entered naturally into conversation. 

 This hail-fellow well-met spirit was not always approved 

 of; the great Duke of Wellington considered that one of 

 the greatest drawbacks to coaching was the nonsense 

 a traveller was constrained to listen to; whilst Felix 

 Mendelssohn, when on a coach journey in 1829, wrote to 

 his family that English conversation consisted of "walk- 

 ing, coals, supper, weather and Buonaparte." 



Congenial companionship made all the difference 

 to the pleasure of the ride, and the passengers usually 

 assorted themselves accordingly; sporting folk, whose 

 chief interest lay in the horses, gravitated naturally to 

 the front of the coach, where they could talk "horse," 

 and enjoy coaching to an extent not imaginable to the 

 folk behind who did not know an off wheeler from a 

 near leader. 



Some friendships begun on a coach lasted through 

 life, others were less fortunate. A farmer's daughter, 

 travelling from Manchester to Margate, lent a too willing 

 ear to the blandishments of a fellow traveller. Believing 

 him prostrate with her charms, she smiled sweetly upon 

 him, and when they arrived in London asked him to 

 look after her luggage. He consented with alacrity, 

 bidding her wait for him in the coffee-room. The 

 young lady waited a long time and at length went in 

 search of her newly made friend, but, alas, he had 

 departed, and with him her luggage, so the disillusioned 

 young lady was obliged to give up all thoughts of Mar- 

 gate and take the next coach home. 



Still more tragic was the state of the elderly ladies 



