OLD COACHING DAYS. 183 



luckily lengthways, in the middle of the road. As it was 

 downhill and I had a heavy load (nearly all Quakers), it was 

 impossible to stop, so I opened out the leaders as well as I 

 could ; they were not throat-lashed or coupled very close, and 

 fortunately did not shy. I managed to clear the barrow with 

 the wheelers also, but the near hind wheel caught it, smashing 

 it to atoms, with a loud report. The Quakers at the back, 

 behind the luggage, all jumped up much alarmed, asking what 

 had happened, as, of course, they had seen nothing and most 

 likely thought that the coach had given way. 



I returned in a day or two, driving a hundred miles. It so 

 happened that I did not go that way again for two years. I 

 then met this same coachman coming towards London, who 

 made a sign for me to stop ; after a few observations, just as 

 we were both starting again, he remarked with a smile, touch- 

 ing his hat at the same time in the most respectful manner, 

 < 1 beg your pardon, sir, but you didn't happen to meet with 

 the Sudbury barrow again, did you ? ' These long coachmen 

 loved a joke dearly, and never forgot to name it if you hap- 

 pened to touch anything when driving. 



I may here add a few words about the patent, or pressure, 

 drag. That this drag is a great boon I cannot deny ; but as 

 to treatment, I know nothing that has been so much abused. 

 In the days of the mails and fast coaches it would have been 

 invaluable. Stopping to put the drag on, or take it off, would 

 have been quite unnecessary ; whereas, formerly, if behind 

 time, a coachman was often tempted to run down a hill with 

 a heavy load, without the drag, to save time, and this caused 

 several sad accidents, the coach getting the better of a weak 

 team of horses who could no longer sustain the weight behind 

 them. There is also another great advantage in this drag, as 

 some hills are only steep just at the top, so that after descend- 

 ing a short distance all pressure can be removed, and the rest 

 of the descent being gradual, you can run down the hill at the 

 rate of ten or twelve miles an hour. With the old drag and 

 chain, when once it was on, it could not be removed till 



