CHAPTER XII THE AMATEURS 



CHARLES I appears to have been the first 

 English Amateur to drive a coach and four, 

 but of his exploits we know nothing beyond 

 a brief mention of the faft in a poem of the 

 Commonwealth, wherein is said: 



"And what distradion for the reputation 



Of Prince is that manly recreation 



More now, or then it was, when Charles of late 



For his disport upon the coach-box sate 



(As many times he did) and not disdain 



To let inferiors ride in Charles's Wain." 



The occasion for the above lines was the famous 

 coaching accident which occurred to Oliver Cromwell 

 when he aspired to the box-seat. The Lord Prote61:or, 

 having received a present of six grey coach horses, 

 decided to make trial of them on September 29th, 

 1654, when accompanied by Thurloe, his secretary, 

 and a few other gentlemen he drove in state to Hyde 

 Park. Presumably they made a merry jaunt of it, for 

 Cromwell "caused some dishes of meat to be brought, 

 when he made his dinner. ■"• The repast finished, the 

 Protestor had a great desire to drive the coach himself, 

 and therefore mounted the box. 



Cromwell's friends had apparently no great faith 



in his coachmanship, for his secretary alone ventured 



himself as inside passenger. The Prote6lor "drove 



pretty handsomely for some time," but the horses not 



^ Thurloe's StaU Papers. 

 178 



