COACH-PROPRIETORS 233 



English hostelry, and its coffee-room, resplendent 

 with old polished mahogany fittings, its tahles laid 

 with silver, and the walls adorned with numerous 

 sjieeimens of those old coaching prints that are 

 now so rare and j^i'ized so greatly by collectors, it 

 wore no uncertain air of that solid and restful 

 comfort the newer and bustling hotels of to-day, 

 furnished and appointed with a distracting showi- 

 ness, are incapable of giving. Everything at the 

 " Bull " was solid and substantial, from the great 

 heavy mahogan}^ chairs that required the strength 

 of a strong man to move, to the rich old English 

 fare, and the full-bodied port its guests Avere sure 

 of obtaining. 



A i)eculiar feature of this fine establishment 

 of Mrs. Nelson's was the room especially reserved 

 for her coachmen and guards, where those worthies 

 sup2)ed and dined oft* the best the house could 

 jorovide, at something less than cost price. Mention 

 has often been made of the exclusiveness of the 

 commercial-rooms of old, but none of those strictly 

 reserved haunts were so unapproachable as this 

 coachmen's room at the " Bull." There they 

 and the guards dined with as much circumstance 

 as the coffee-room guests, drank wine with the 

 appreciation of connoisseurs, and tipped the waiter 

 as freely as any travellers down the road. A 

 round dozen daily gathered round the table of 

 this sanctum, joined sometimes by well-known 

 amateurs of the road like Sir Henry Peyton and 

 the Honourable Thomas Kenyon, but only as 

 distinguished and quite exceptional guests. Once, 



