OLD COACHING DAYS, 205 



it ineffectually, or at all events were unable to accomplish the 

 duty satisfactorily. It is gratifying to me to reflect that I drove 

 this coach more than seven years without a single mishap. 



Getting at length rather tired of such incessant and mono- 

 tonous nightly work, I applied for a change to my employer, 

 the well-known and much-respected Mr. Chaplin, who at that 

 time had seventeen hundred horses employed in coaching. 

 His reply was characteristic. ' I cannot find you all day 

 coaches,' said he ; 'besides, who am I to get to drive your 

 mail ? ' I must say, I thought this rather severe at the time, but, 

 good and kind-hearted man as he was, he did not forget me. 



Not long after this interview, the Brighton day mail being 

 about to start, he made me the offer to drive the whole distance 

 and horse the coach a stage, with the option of driving it with- 

 out horsing. Like most young men I was rather ambitious, 

 and closed with the former conditions. The speculation, 

 however, did not turn out a very profitable one, and, the rail- 

 way making great progress, I sold my horses to Mr. Richard 

 Cooper, who was to succeed me on the box. I was then 

 offered the far-famed Exeter Telegraph, one of the fastest 

 and best-appointed coaches in England. My fondness for 

 coaching still continuing, and not feeling disposed to settle to 

 any business, I drove this coach from Exeter to Ilminster and 

 back, a distance of sixty-six miles, early in the morning and 

 late at night. After driving it three years, the railway opened 

 to Bridgewater ; this closed the career of the once-celebrated 

 Telegraph. But those who had so long shared its success 

 were not inclined to knock under. My brother coachman and 

 myself, together with the two guards, accordingly started a 

 Telegraph from Devonport to London, a distance of ninety- 

 five miles by road, joining the rail at Bridgewater, thus making 

 the whole journey two hundred and fifty miles in one day. At 

 that time there was a coach called the Nonpareil, running 

 from Devonport to Bristol. 



The proprietors of this vehicle, thinking that ours would 

 take off some of their trade, made theirs a London coach also, 

 and started at the same time as we did. We then commenced 



