aOJV THE COACHES WERE NAMED i^ 



which your clashing but breakneck " Tally-ho's ! " 

 and " Comets " are entirely strange. The " mind's 

 eye, Horatio," jiictures in the progress of a 

 Diligence a patient toiling against difficulties, 

 rewarded in the end by the happy issue of an 

 arrival at one's inn, Aveary perhaps with long 

 hours of travel, but still sound in body ; an ending 

 not always so comfortable when travelling by 

 the swift " Tally-ho's " and " Comets " aforesaid. 

 Then, too, when " Diligence " became shortened 

 into "Dilly," as it very soon was, the title grew 

 in a sense poetic. The " Derby Dilly," which, 

 faithful among the faithless, would aj^pear to have 

 remained really and truly a Diligence, has in fact 

 been celebrated in verse by no less an one than 

 Canning, in the lines contributed by him to the 

 Loves of the Triangles : — 



So down thy lull, romantic Ashbourne, glides 

 The Derby Dilly, carrying* three insides. 

 One in each corner sits and lolls at ease, 

 With folded arms, propt back, and outstretched knees; 

 While the press'd Bodkin, pinch'd and squeezed to death, 

 Sweats in the mid-most place, and scolds, and pants for 

 breath. 



Canning's vivid picture of travelling by Dilly 

 describes in an unaj^i^roachable manner the 

 peculiar defects of its construction. 



* It is worthy of note that these lines are generally mis- 

 quoted. But the misquotations are improvements upon the 

 original ; as, in fact, the best known misquotations are. The 

 usual version runs, "So down thy vale," and substitutes "The 

 Derby Dilly, with its three insides " for the original clumsy line, 

 which fails to scan. 



VOL. I. 19 



