204 DRIVING. 



Stoke, a small trout stream there had so much swollen that it 

 had destroyed a great part of the village, in which was the 

 stabling the coach-horses had just vacated, and the horses 

 taken off were about to enter. On reaching the hill at Stone- 

 henge, about half an hour later, the water had so much increased 

 that it was just running over the embankment. The coachman, 

 having some doubt as to the safety of crossing the embankment, 

 pulled up. Two or three of the passengers got off the hind 

 part of the coach, intending to follow over on foot. On getting 

 safely over, the coachman had just pulled up when the whole 

 bank gave way. The passengers that had got off were left 

 behind, without a possible chance of getting to London that 

 night, the coachman making the best of his way to the Star 

 Hotel at Andover, where the ccach stopped half an hour for 

 dinner, and reached Basingstoke at 7 P.M., the time it was due, 

 to be conveyed by the last train to London. 



A comprehensive idea of the life and work of a coachman 

 in former days may be gathered from the sketch of the career 

 of Mr. Charles Ward (one of a family well-known on the box), 

 written by himself, and published for private circulation a few 

 years back. The Editor takes the opportunity furnished by the 

 author of quoting the following extracts. 



My father was a coach proprietor as well as a coachman, 

 and, I am proud to say, one of the best whips of his day. 

 He gave me many opportunities of driving a team. I will not, 

 however, enter into all the details of my youthful career, but 

 proceed to state, that at the early age of seventeen I was sent 

 nightly with the Norwich and Ipswich mail as far as Colchester, 

 a distance of fifty- two miles. Never having previously travelled 

 beyond Whitechapel Church, on that line of road, the change 

 was rather trying for a beginner. But . fortune favoured me ; 

 and I drove His Majesty's mail for nearly five years without an 

 accident. I was then promoted to the Quicksilver, Devonport 

 mail, the fastest at that time out of London. It must be ad- 

 mitted that I undertook this task under difficult circumstances 

 involving, as it did, sixty miles a night since many had tried 



