128 STAGE-COACH AND MAIL IN DAYS OF YORE 



tionally regarded as devil-me-care fellows, own 

 brothers in disposition to sailors, always repre- 

 sented as jolly, even in the old days when rations 

 were scanty and bad and rope's endings plentiful. 

 This jollity is insisted upon, even by the old 

 wayside signs of the country inns. Now and 

 again you may find the sign of the "Jolly 

 Anglers," while on the Portsmouth Road the 

 " Jolly Drovers " is to be seen, and on the Exeter 

 Eoad the " Jolly Farmer," a creature vanished 

 from this country and utterly unknown these 

 forty years and more ; but only the waggoners 

 and the sailors are usually known by that adjec- 

 tive. Rarely, indeed, is the sailor described in 

 any other way. In a few instances he may be 

 "Valiant," but ninety times in every hundred he 

 is " Jolly." 



According to the second verse of the " Jolly 

 Waggoner," his cheerfulness was invincible : — 



It is a cold aucl stormy night : I'm wetted to the skin, 

 But I'll bear it with contentment till I get me to my inn, 

 And then I'll sit a-drinking with the landlord and his kin. 



Sing wo ! my lads, sing wo ! 



Drive on, my lads, gee-lio ! 

 For who can live the life that we jolly waggoners do-o-o ? 



He kncAV something of all kinds of weather, and 

 met all kinds of men in his daily journeys, and 

 thus early became something of a philosopher, 

 looking forward for nothing beyond his nightly 

 inn, in whose kitchen he was well known and 

 esteemed, alike for his own qualities and the news 

 and parcels he brought from the outer world on 



