POSTING IN ENGLAND. 309 



Lord FitzRoy liked going along* fast, he knew he would get his 

 five shillings, just as he knew if he ' toddled ' the old lady down 

 she would have said, ' Here are five shillings for you ; you are 

 a nice steady driver.' Tippoo's father was a nigger, and he 

 was, if not as 'black as your hat,' most unmistakably marked 

 with the tar-brush, and had nigger features, as had his son (an 

 equally good postboy, who was for many years postilion to 

 the seventh Duke of Beaufort) and his grandson. These boys 

 drove most scientifically, particularly the long heavy stages. 

 They went steadily the first three or four miles, and when their 

 horses had got their second wind they sent them along, and 

 did their journey at the rate of ten or eleven miles an hour, 

 without distressing them, getting over their stage much faster, 

 and taking less out of their horses, than if they had started off 

 at a very fast pace. Some of the stages were very long. The 

 hotel-keepers in the different towns always ran to the same 

 houses in the towns on each side of them ; there was great 

 opposition, and they disliked running to any other house but 

 that kept by their friends. For instance, on the Bath road 

 going up to London, the White Hart at Chippenham could not 

 change at Calne, but ran through to Marlborough, to the Castle 

 Hotel (now Marlborough College), nineteen miles. Only an 

 artist could have ridden and driven horses that distance at the 

 rate often miles an hour, with a heavily-laden travelling carriage, 

 without knocking the animals up. A light, quick, pretty well 

 bred stamp of horse was used ; they were fed with the best 

 of oats and plenty of them, and were in excellent condition. 

 Another stage on that road was from Newbury to Reading, 

 seventeen miles through deep grinding gravel. The boys and 

 horses came out in regular turn, as a carriage (supposing horses 

 for it had not been ordered beforehand) was seen coming. The 

 big ostler's bell, the handle of which was by the side of the 

 porch, was loudly rung, and ' First turn out ' was called in a 

 loud voice there were always two or three pair ready harnessed. 

 As the carriage pulled up, out they came, often with the post- 

 boy ready mounted. The previous boy having been paid for 



