310 DRIVING. 



horses and self is. 6d. per mile, and every fraction of a mile, 

 for the horses, and 6d. a mile for himself off went the carriage, 

 generally in from two to three minutes from its arrival. The 

 old posting-houses were all built with the entrance into the 

 posting-yard through the centre of the house, what is called a 

 porte-cochere in France, or with the entrance to the yard at the 

 corner of the house, or just across the road opposite. 



If there were ladies in the carriage, the landlady would 

 come out and addressing them would say, ' Will you please to 

 alight?' or as some said 'unlight.' I really believe that the 

 great majority of these landladies, and a very great many of the 

 landlords, for years and years together never went twenty yards 

 from their houses. One of the most charming specimens was 

 Mrs. Botham, of the Pelican at Speenhamland, which was in 

 fact Newbury in Berkshire. Her nephews kept the Windmill 

 at Salt Hill, in whose garden, on the opposite side of the road, 

 stands the celebrated Eton ' Montem.' Most of these post- 

 masters and innkeepers horsed some of the coaches several 

 stages on their roads, in addition to the thirty to forty pair of 

 post-horses already mentioned, and at their inns travellers, by 

 private carriages and the coaches they horsed, breakfasted, 

 dined, or had tea. For instance, coming from London to Bath 

 the York House breakfasted at Salt Hill, dined at the Pelican 

 at Newbury, and had tea at Marlborough. After dinner, if a 

 carriage full of ladies and children dined, as they were starting, 

 Mrs. Botham, a grand old lady with a charming voice and 

 manner, in a rich stiff black silk gown, and a stiff high white 

 cap, attended by neatly-dressed handmaidens bearing trays, 

 arrived, and plied the ladies and youngsters each with a small 

 glass of most excellent cherry brandy, and for each youngster, 

 done up in a white ' cornet ' of the cleanest paper, was a parcel 

 of delicious brandy-snaps. For something like twenty years did 

 I know Mrs. Botham, and she looked just as old when I first 

 knew her as she did when I saw her last ; and I might invert 

 the remark and say that she looked just as young when I last 

 saw her as the first time I partook of the liqueur and cakes. 



