252 STAGE-COACH AND MAIL IN DAYS OF YORE 



come down to us to j^lace him on a higher pedestal 

 than that of the majority of the gentlemen 

 amateurs. He was not only a su23reme artist with 

 the ril3hons, " whose passion for the bench,'' as 

 " Nimrod " says, " exceeded all other Avorldly am- 

 hitions," but he was also a supremely good fellow, 

 in a l)roader and better significance of that mis- 

 used term than generally imj^jlicd. That he was 

 one of the spendthrifts who had run through their 

 money before taking to the road as a professional 

 would appear to be a baseless statement, invented 

 perhaps to account for that higher form of 

 sportsmanship which entirely transcended that 

 of the general ruck of " sportsmen," by inducing 

 him to drive his coach, as an ordinary professional 

 would, day by day, instead of when fine weather 

 and the inclination of the moment served. A 

 good professional he made, for he did by no means 

 forget his birth and education when on the box, 

 and was singularly refined and courteous. His 

 second, and famous, coach was the " Age," put on 

 the Brighton Road in 1828. This celel)rated coach 

 eclipsed all the others of that time, from the mere 

 point of view of elegance and comfort. On a road 

 like that to Brighton there was not, of course, 

 the chance to rival such flyers as the Devonport 

 " Quicksilver " and other long-distance cracks ; 

 but in cver}^ circumstance of its equipment it 

 was pre-eminent. It was not for nothing that 

 Stevenson loved tlie road. His ambition was to 

 be first on it, and he succeeded. The " Age " was 

 Ijuilt and finished, horsed and found in every way 



