2 74 STAGE-COACH AND MAIL IN DAYS OF YORE 



was fond of all kinds of sport, a successful 

 bookmaker, a good shot, went coursing, and 

 at liorseracing was as keen as any tyke in broad 

 Yorkshire. Not insensible, either, to the charms 

 of the P. R., he introduced some noted bruisers 

 in his day, and Avas an intimate friend and 

 companion of Tom Spring. When not actively 

 engaged, he was always ready to take the ribbons 

 for a friend who wanted a holiday or had 

 urgent private affairs to attend to ; and the 

 tooling of the teams, no matter how refractory, 

 never suffered in dignity from his manipulation. 

 He was, take him for all in all, perhaps one of 

 tlie most original and jierfect specimens of the 

 old-fashioned, cheery, story-telling, and loquacious 

 sort who ever blew a horn, kissed a pretty 

 barmaid, pulled a sluggish team out of a difficulty, 

 or chaffed a yokel on his way to market. 



This jDaragon among guards met his death 

 in April 1825, dying at the " Eed Lion," Ponte- 

 fract, of mortification resulting from an accident. 

 It seems that, to make room for an extra 

 passenger, he had given up the guard's seat, 

 and went to sit beside the coachman, who 

 already had a j)assenger on the box. In order 

 not to inconvenience the coachman's driving, 

 he sat on the edge of the seat, with one of his 

 legs dangling over the side, and so when the 

 coa,ch gave a lurch, was throAvn off and his 

 thigh broken. 



Bob Hadley, guard of the " Unicorn " coach 

 between Manchester and the Potteries, was of 



