222 THE COACHING ERA 



embarrassment to his friend. Being on a coach soon 

 after the death of his wife, he evinced great interest in a 

 fellow passenger apparently in the last stage of con- 

 sumption. On leaving the coach he said to him: "My 

 good man, we're going to leave you. It's my opinion, 

 my poor fellow, that you are bespoke; you're now, I 

 take it, as good as ready money to the undertaker. In 

 faft, you're booked, so there, there's a seven-shilling 

 piece for you, my good man, and when you go to heaven 

 and see my sainted Jane, pray tell her you saw me, and 

 that I'm well." 



On a coach journey one hot summer day Mr. Incledon 

 was annoyed and terrified whenever a wasp entered 

 the carriage. The journey lasted forty miles, but he 

 could not be dissuaded from the firm conviftion that it 

 was the same wasp, who travelled the whole distance 

 with the express purpose of alarming him. 



"There's that cursed wasp again!" he would exclaim, 

 and try, with many imprecations to destroy it, to the 

 considerable disgust of a grave taciturn man who 

 occupied a seat in the coach. Presently this gentleman 

 fell asleep, and a wasp entering the coach Mr. Incledon 

 redoubled his efforts to catch it. At last it settled on 

 the face of the sleeper. Mr. Incledon caught his breath, 

 lifted his hand, and brought it down with earnest 

 violence on the face of the somnolent passenger, ex- 

 claiming triumphantly: "Ha! d — n you. I've done for 

 you now!" The gentleman so unceremoniously awakened 

 rose up in wrath, and even with the mangled yellow 

 corpse on his cheek as evidence, and Incledon's earnest 



