136 STAGE-COACH AND MAIL IN DAYS OF YORE 



appearing, sudclenly and nuexpectedly, at some 

 great town-warehouse of tlie firm, or some Avayside 

 ofiice or place of call, and often springing, as it 

 were, out of the void, to encourage some diligent 

 servant, or (it is to he feared) more often to 

 reprimand a lazy and inefficient one. None could 

 predicate his movements or where he might he at 

 any given time ; save indeed those witli whom 

 he had made appointments, and they knew, after 

 only a short acquaintance, tliat the sun was scarce 

 more likely to rise and set according to the 

 calendar than Joseph Baxendale was to redeem 

 his j)i'oniise of any such assignation. 



Porsakino; for awhile the roads and his estah- 

 lishments along them, he would next appear on 

 the canals on A^hose sullen Avaters his fly-hoats 

 flew, and pay flying visits of inspection to the 

 many Avharves along their course. These Avater 

 expeditions Avere made in a vessel especially 

 constructed — a " canal-yacht " called the Lark, 

 Avhether significantly named in allusion to the 

 early-rising hahits of its OAvner Ave do not knoAV. 

 It Avas this hoat, according to the still surviving 

 tradition, he lent to the Earl of Derhy on an 

 occasion Avhen Lady Derhy Avas in London, too 

 ill to travel hy road to KnoAvsley, Avhere, 

 according to the doctor's advice, she should l)e 

 removed. In it she travelled all the Avay doAAU 

 to Lancashire, along the canals. 



Another surviving tradition, and one that 

 speaks Avell for the quality of the horses that drcAV 

 the fly-hoats— and perhaps even hettcr for the 



