lyo THE COACHING ERA 



Passengers by stage-coach generally talked highway- 

 men, thought highwaymen, dreamed highwaymen, and 

 saw a highwayman behind every tree, so that, when the 

 travellers on a certain journey, having been jolted into 

 intimacy, began on their favourite topic, a gentleman 

 confided to them that he had ten guineas in his pocket 

 and was very anxious to keep them in his own possession. 

 A lady thereupon said that if such was his desire he had 

 better put them in his boot. He accepted the advice 

 thankfully and immediately did so. A few minutes 

 later the coach halted abruptly, and a masked highway- 

 man put his head in at the window and commanded an 

 instant transfer of purses. The passengers sat petrified, 

 while the gentleman with the gold in his boot thought 

 complacently that it was safe. On this score he was 

 rudely disillusioned, for he could scarcely believe his 

 ears when the lady who had recommended the hiding- 

 place calmly told the robber to look in the gentleman's 

 boot. 



The highwayman promptly commanded all present 

 to remove their boots, a proceeding delicately referred 

 to in the vernacular of the road as "shelling the peas." 

 He took the money thus revealed and departed. 



The coach proceeded, and the luckless gentleman, 

 bewailing the loss of his ten guineas, relieved himself 

 by telling the lady his plain unvarnished opinion of her. 

 She owned that the case looked black, but declared she 

 could clear herself if all present would come and dine 

 with her next day. The company, after some indecision 

 agreed to do this, and the following day they were 



