TWO FOREIGNERS ON COACHING 229 



low, and the dust Is likewise more troublesome than in 

 the inside, where, at any rate, you may draw up the 

 windows according to your pleasure." 



Moritz paid two shillings as coach fare from London 

 to Richmond, from whence after a short visit he started 

 to walk to Oxford on foot. He met with such scant 

 civility at the inns and villages on the road that he 

 came to the conclusion that the English were not a 

 nation of shopkeepers but of horsemen: 



"To what various, singular, and unaccountable 

 fatalities and adventures are not foot-travellers exposed 

 in this land of carriages and horses! ... A traveller on 

 foot in this country seems to be considered a sort of 

 wild man, or out-of-the-way being, who is stared at, 

 pitied, suspe6led, and shunned by everybody that meets 

 him. At least this has hitherto been my case, on the 

 road from Richmond to Windsor." 



Moritz put up at the Mitre Hotel in Oxford where 

 he was well treated though he came on foot, but he 

 attributed this to the fa6l that, after a convivial evening 

 with some exceedingly jovial clergymen, he in a moment 

 of expansion told the waiter that he must not think 

 that because he arrived on foot he would tip less, but 

 quite the contrary. 



Moritz decided not to expose himself to any more 

 insults as a pedestrian, so took a place in the Birmingham 

 stage-coach. He had for a companion a young officer 

 who was going to pay a visit to his three sisters at school 

 in Birmingham. Outside the coach were some soldiers 



