OLD COACHING DAYS. 173 



uncommon, and I remember an old coachman telling me that 

 he once met two coaches in one night without any coachman, 

 and that he managed to stop them both without any accident. 

 From the age of six till twelve I was at school on Wimbledon 

 Common, and went home three times a year in Mr. Dawnay's 

 four-horse coach. This was a strange conveyance. It carried 

 four inside; then, behind the body of the coach, there was a 

 circular sort of basket which carried six passengers. A very few 

 years previously, although the coaches were on springs, the box 

 seat was not so designed, so that the coachmen were terribly 

 shaken. State coaches were then built in the same manner. 

 I was always very fond of horses, and when at this school I 

 much envied our dancing-master, who came once a week in 

 a tandem. 



In those days Lord Spencer lived in Wimbledon Park, which 

 abounded in game of all sorts. Wild ducks were by no means 

 rare visitors, woodcocks were not seldom found, and there was 

 also a heronry. Sir Francis Burdett lived upon the Common, 

 also Tooke, Lord Melville, Count St. Antonio, and many more. 

 At twelve years of age I went to Eton for four years ; this was 

 in 1826. Goodall was provost, Keate headmaster; Staniforth, 

 captain of the boats. Here I first began to drive, having a gig 

 occasionally or a phaeton from Bob Davis, who kept the inn 

 next to Windsor Bridge. My next coaching experiences were 

 from London to Peterborough and back three times a year, 

 either by the Louth mail, which ran through Cambridge, or by 

 the Stamford < Regent.' 



Ringrose drove the mail from Cambridge to Huntingdon 

 and back. One fine summer morning, just at dawn, a donkey 

 stood in the middle of the road, but as the mail drew near, he 

 lay down and rolled, causing such a dust that the leaders took 

 fright and upset the mail. Such an accident might, of course, 

 have happened to anybody, but poor Ringrose was so chaffed, 

 and was asked so frequently whether he had met the donkey 

 that morning, that he was nearly driven off the road. There 

 were some good inns in those days, the Cock Inn at Eaton. 



