THE COACH AS NEWS-BEARER 155 



carriage, on every morning in the year, was taken down 

 to an official inspeftor for examination — wheels, axles, 

 linchpins, pole, glasses, lamps, were all critically probed 

 and tested. Every part of every carriage had been 

 cleaned, every horse had been groomed, with as much 

 rigour as if they belonged to a private gentleman; and 

 that part of the speftacle offered itself always. But the 

 night before us is a night of vidtory, and behold! to the 

 ordinary display, what a heart-shaking addition! — horses, 

 men, carriages, all are dressed in laurels and flowers, 

 oak-leaves and ribbons. The guards, as being officially 

 His Majesty's servants, and of the coachmen such as 

 are within the privilege of the post-office, wear the 

 royal liveries of course ; and as it is summer (for all the 

 land victories were naturally won in summer), they 

 wear, on this fine evening, these liveries exposed to 

 view, without any covering of upper coats. Such a 

 costume, and the elaborate arrangement of the laurels 

 in their hats, dilate their hearts, by giving them openly 

 a personal connection with the great news, in which 

 already they have the general interest of patriotism. 

 That great national sentiment surmounts and quells 

 all sense of ordinary distinftions. Those passengers who 

 happen to be gentlemen are now hardly to be distin- 

 guished as such except by their dress; for the usual 

 reserve of their manner in speaking to the attendants 

 has on this night melted away. One heart, one pride, 

 one glory, connects every man by the transcendent 

 bond of his national blood. The spectators, who are 

 numerous beyond precedent, express their sympathy 

 with these fervent feelings by continual hurrahs. Every 

 moment are shouted aloud by the post-office servants, 

 and summoned to draw up, the great ancestral names of 

 cities known to history through a thousand years — 

 Lincoln, Winchester, Portsmouth, Gloucester, Oxford, 



