236 STAGE-COACH A^W MAIL IN DAYS OF YORE 



midway between the West End and the City, the 

 " Bell and Crown " thus possessed certain advan- 

 tages, and received much patronage both from 

 commercial magnates and Society people. Among 

 his patrons he numl)ered the " Iron Duke," for 

 AA'hom he had an almost religious reverence, and 

 indeed proposed to change the name of his house 

 to the "Wellington," in honour of him ; only re- 

 considering the project when the Duke told him — 

 as he commonly did the many extravagant hero- 

 worshippers Avhose attentions were a daily nuisance 



• — not to be "a d d fool." Fagg, however, 



was no fool, but a very shreAvd person indeed. 

 A coachman, applying to him for a place on one 

 of his coaches, was j^nt through a strict examina- 

 tion as to his qualifications, when it appeared 

 that he was (according to his own account) not 

 only a first-rate and steady " artist," but had 

 never capsized a coach in the whole course of his 

 career — "he didn't know what a liupset meant." 



" Oh ! go away," retorted the justly incensed 

 Fagg ; " you are no man for me. My coaches 

 are always upsetting, and with nour want of 

 experience, how the devil should you know how to 

 get one on her legs again ? " 



IMrs. Mountain also had her own coach-factory. 

 She Avas no less energetic than that very lively 

 and masterful person, Mrs. Ann Nelson, but in a 

 smaller Avay of business. Sarah Ann Mountain's 

 house was that " Saracen's Head," Snow Hill, 

 immortalised ])y Dickens in Nichol((s Nicklehij. 

 She had succeeded to the business in 1818, on the 



