DAJIW OF THE COACHING AGE 85 



outAvalked Avitliout the slio-btest difficulty. It 

 seems to hid more up-to-date in the matter of 

 windows, and to be a " glass-coach," if we may 

 judge by the appearance of the window at which 

 the solitary and unhappy-looking jiassenger is 

 standing in an attitude suggestive of stomachic 

 disturbance. There are no windows in the upper 

 quarters of the coach, Avliich in that and some 

 other respects greatly resembles the vehicle pic- 

 tured in 1747 hj Hogarth in his Inn Yard. 



llothwell's coach is drawn by four horses in 

 hand, with a postilion on the off horse of a couple 

 of extra leaders. The practice of using six horses 

 and a postilion is one to Avliich we find allusion 

 in Eielding's Joseph Andrews, written nine years 

 later than the date of this Birmingham coach. 

 The curious will find the description in the twelfth 

 chapter of that novel, Avhere Josejih, recovering 

 from the murderous attack of tAVO higliAvaymen, 

 attracts the attention of the postilion of a passing 

 stage-coach. " The postilion, hearing a man's 

 groans, stopped his horses, and told the coachman 

 he Avas certain there was a dead man lying in the 

 ditch, for he heard him groan." (That postilion 

 surely was an Irishman.) " "Go on, sirrah ! ' says 

 the coachman : ' Ave are confounded late, and have 

 no time to look after d^ad men.' A lady, Avho 

 heard AA'^hat the postilion said, and likcAvise heard 

 the groan, called eagerly to the coachman to stop 

 and see Avliat aa as the matter. Upon Avhich, he bid 

 the postilion alight and look into the ditch. He 

 did so, and returned, ' That there was a man 



