i82 STAGE-COACH AND MAIL IN DAYS OF YORE 



uot withhold admiration Avheii noticing these 

 latter-day coaches. " Next to a fox-hunt," he 

 says, " the finest sifflit in Ens^land is a sta2:e-coach 

 just ready to start. A great sheep- or cattle-fair 

 is a heautif ul sisrlit : hut in a stas^e-coach yon 

 see more of Ayliat man is capahle of 2:)erforniing. 

 Tlio yehicle itself ; the harness, all so complete 

 and so neatly arranged, so strong, and clean, 

 and good ; the heautiful horses, impatient to he 

 ofP ; the inside full, and the outside coyered, in 

 eyery part, with men, Avomen, and children, 

 boxes, hags, bundles ; the coachman, taking his 

 reins in one hand and his whip in the other, 

 giyes a signal with his foot, and away they go, 

 at the rate of seyen miles an hour — the population 

 and the property of a hamlet. One of these 

 coaches coming in, after a long journey, is a 

 sight not less interesting. The horses are now 

 all sweat and foam, the reek from their bodies 

 ascending like a cloud. The whole equipage is 

 coyered, perhaps, with dust and dirt. I3ut still, 

 on it comes, as steady as the hand of the clock. 

 As a proof of the perfection to Avhicli this mode 

 of trayelling has been brought, there is one coach 

 Avhicli goes between Exeter and London, Avhose 

 proprietors agree to forfeit eightpence for eyery 

 minute the coach is 1)eliind its time at any of 

 its stages ; and this coach, I belieye, travels eight 

 miles an hour, and that, too, upon a yery hilly, 

 and at some seasons a yery deep, road." 



Yes, but had Cobbett Avritten in still later 

 years, lie Avould Inwe found the " (^uicksilyer " 



