358 STAGE-COACH AND MAIL IN DAYS OF YORE 



Practical joking affected every class. One 

 of the old borough members of Parliament^ 

 Prancis Pane, who began his long Parliamentary 

 career in 1790— was a practical joker of the 

 most desolating kind. Travelling by coach to 

 London along the Exeter Road on one occasion, 

 he saw, from his seat inside, the coat-tails of 

 one of the outside passengers — a barber, of 

 Dorchester— hanging down. This gave him the 

 pleasing notion of cutting open the pocket and 

 extracting its contents, which happened to be 

 a bulky parcel of banknotes the unfortunate 

 shaver had had given in his charge. The extra- 

 ordinary cruelty of the practical jokers who made 

 existence a burden to their victims a hundred 

 years ago prompted Pane to gloat over the 

 barber's terror when he found the notes gone, 

 and only to restore them when his enjoyment 

 could be carried no farther. As some amends, 

 he entertained his victim at the White Horse 

 Cellar on the eve of the barber's return 

 to Dorchester; but his practical joking Avas 

 not yet complete, for, taking excellent care 

 that his victim should be fully charged with 

 liquor, he hustled him into the night coach for 

 quite another Dorchester— Dorchester, Oxford- 

 shire — where he was duly set doAvn the folloAving 

 morninG*. 



