COACHING IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY loi 



we crawling up a rather steep hill, and consequently 

 proceeding slower than usual, than I carefully 

 crept from the top of the coach, and was lucky 

 enough to get myself snugly ensconced in the 

 basket behind. ' O sir, you will he shaken to 

 death ! ' said the blackamoor ; but I heeded him 

 not, trusting that he was exaggerating the un- 

 pleasantness of my new situation. And, truly, as 

 long as A¥e went on slowly up the hill, it was easy 

 and pleasant enough ; and I was just on the point 

 of falling asleep, having had no rest the night 

 before, when on a sudden the coach proceeded at 

 a rapid rate downhill. Then all the boxes, iron- 

 nailed and copper-fastened, began, as it were, to 

 dance around me ; everything in the basket ap- 

 peared to be alive, and every moment I received 

 such violent 1)1oavs that I thought my last hour 

 had come. The blackamoor had been right, I now 

 saw clearly; but repentance was useless, and I 

 was ol)liged to suffer horrible torture for nearly an 

 hour, which seemed to me an eternity. At last we 

 came to another hill, when, quite shaken to pieces, 

 bleeding, and sore, I ruefully crept back to the 

 top of the coach to my former seat. ' Ah, did I 

 not tell you that you would be shaken to death ? ' 

 inquired the black man, when I was creeping 

 along on my stomach. But I gave him no reply. 

 . Indeed, I was ashamed ; and I now wa'ite this as 

 a warning to all strangers ayIio are inclined to ride 

 in English stage-coaches and take an outside seat, 

 or, worse still, horror of horrors, a seat in the 

 basket. 



