226 DRIVING. 



tired his horses nor appeared to go so fast as Adlam, who was 

 always late. 



There were some quaint characters amongst the coachmen. 

 Ned Mountain drove the Exeter Defiance. He left Basing- 

 stoke at ten at night, drove down till he met the up-coach, 

 when the coachmen changed coaches, and he got back to 

 Basingstoke at eight in the morning, driving from eighty to 

 ninety miles every night. He was once unwell and sent for the 

 doctor, who cross-examined him as to his habits. He said he 

 always had a pipe and a glass at eight o'clock every morning, 

 upon which the doctor expressed astonishment that he was 

 alive after drinking in the morning. ' It may be morning to 

 you,' said Ned, ' but it's my bed-time, and I can't leave it off.' 

 Billy Barrett drove the Nonpareil ; he was called Old Billy, 

 and drove the omnibus between Plymouth and Devonport for 

 twenty years after the coaches were off the road. He used to 

 get 'rather mixed with his words. He was fond of pointing out 

 country gentlemen's seats on the road. At one place he used 



to say Lord had 'the finest revenue of trees in England.' 



On a certain occasion, wishing to be very polite to a lady for 

 whom there was not room inside his coach, he endeavoured 

 to persuade an inside passenger to give up his seat and travel 

 outside ; seeking to enlist sympathy by declaring that the lady 

 was 'very ill-disposed.' There was a very eccentric coachman 

 named Saunders who used to drive a coach from Tiverton to 

 Exeter, and when the railway opened altered his route and 

 drove to Beam Bridge (twenty miles from Exeter). He had a 

 guard named Bill Emery, a fine player on the key-bugle. Emery 

 could imitate the lowing of cattle, and often set oxen and cows 

 running in the meadows. Saunders wore the most correct 

 coaching costume : a low-crown flat-brimmed white hat, and 

 spotted shawl round his neck, which he wore on the hottest 

 day of summer, declaring that if he left it off ' he always got 

 the chop-ache.' He also wore what some call overalls (other- 

 wise knee-caps) of drab cloth that buttoned up from his ankles 

 to the top of his thighs generally over top-boots in the hottest 



