2i6 THE COACHING ERA 



That he placed implicit faith in the morals and maxims 

 contained in Dr. Kitchiner's Traveller's Oracle^ can be 

 gathered from the account of a journey to Liverpool 

 in 1823. 



Of his companions he wrote in no measured terms: 

 "Three great hulking rascals, and afraid of the cold, 

 pretty dears!" Have the windows open they would not. 

 "There was no possibility of getting a breath of air, 

 but by quarrelling. Not even the commonplace polite- 

 ness of a coach traveller was practised. Would it be 

 agreeable to have this window u-pP'^ No, up it went. I 

 watched them to sleep, stole it down. In a few minutes 

 up! — and down again; and so on, without a word. 



"If this goes on I shall be smothered," thought 

 Charles Matthews — then he remembered the "Oracle"; 

 that invaluable work provided for just such a con- 

 tingency. Seeing that the " pretty dears" were three 

 to one, he hesitated to follow Dr. Kitchiner's advice, 

 anent breaking the vdndow, too literally, but when the 

 coach halted at the next stage, he got out and whispered 

 his plan to the willing ears of an Irishman whose seat 

 was on the roof. 



Paddy assented rapturously, and when clambering 

 back to his place, "accidentally" kicked his boot right 

 through one of the coach windows! Fresh air in 

 plenty then, and Matthews hugged himself delightedly. 

 Arrived at his destination, and no longer obliged to keep 

 unwilling company with the three "pretty dears," he 

 desired to reveal his duplicity, and calling for the guard, 

 paid him the price of the broken pane. "The faces of 



