152 STAGE-COACH AND MAIL IN DAYS OP VORE 



"who had sokl him out of his stable for his bad 

 temper. The severe AA^ork in coaches of that 

 period soon took the unruly nature out of such 

 animals, and no complaint was made of him in 

 his long after-career on the Brighton and Pet worth 

 stage-coach. 



This exciting episode was, of course, the 

 wonder of that age, and two coaching artists 

 made capital out of it, in the shai^e of very 

 effective jilates. James Pollard was the author 

 of one ; the other Avas Ijy one Sauerweid, whose 

 name is not familiar in Avork of this kind. 



Dark nights in Avild countrA" Avere fruitful in 

 strange experiences, aided, doubtless, by the 

 j)otency of the parting glass as well as by the 

 blackness of the night and the ruggedness of 

 the Avay. The adventures of Jack Creery and 

 Joe Lord, coachman and guard of the pah"-horse 

 Lancaster and Kirkl)y Stephen Mail, one snowy 

 night, form a case in point. They had the coach 

 to themselves, for it Avas not good travelling 

 Aveather. Creery, aa^c are told, "felt sleepy" — a 

 pretty Avay of saying he AA^as intoxicated — and 

 so the guard took the reins. In driving, this 

 AA^orthy, AA'hose condition seems to have been 

 only a shade better than that of his companion, 

 Avaiulered in the snow into a by-lane l)etAveen 

 Kirkby Stephen and Kirkby Lonsdale, and so lost 

 his Avay. After floundering about for some time, 

 he aroused Creery, and their united efforts, after 

 alighting many tim(\s to read the signposts, 

 I)rou"'ht them in the middle of the night to a 



