28o STAGE-COACH Al^D MAIL IN DAYS OF YORJS 



gang wi' Me ? " and half a hundred others. The 

 passengers, like that famous young lady " with 

 rings on her fingers and hells on her toes," had 

 music wherever they went. Let us hope they 

 apj^reciated their good fortune to the full. 



The Post Office looked with a cold glance upon 

 these proceedings, and forbade mail-guards to ^\'i\>j 

 the key -bugle. Those officials therefore purchased 

 them secretly, and snatched a fearful joy l)y pro- 

 ducing them when clear of London streets, and 

 playing, loud and long, such airs as " The Days 

 when we went Gipsying, a Long Time Ago," and 

 "Sally in our Alley," to the great admiration of 

 the country joskins. The performances of expert 

 players were said to be delightful, and no doubt 

 they quickly reaped in tips a harvest from what 

 they had expended on their instruments. 



It is on record that a guard on the Chester 

 Mail, Avith the fear of God or pul)lic opinion 

 before him, always used to honour the Sal)bath 

 Day by playing the " Old Hundredth " as the 

 coach passed through town and village, reserving 

 his secular tunes for the secluded highway. 



Cornets-a-piston began to rival the key-bugle 

 in the last years of coaching, and the hurly-burly 

 grew terrific. To what lengths this progressive 

 din would have been carried had not the coaching 

 age itself come to an end let us not seek to 

 inquire ; but when the coaching revival of 1863 

 and succeeding years brought back some of the old 

 sights and sounds of the road, key-bugles and their 

 like were very properly voted bad form, and the 



