258 STAGE-COACH AND MAIL IN DAYS OF YORE 



rule, like an accomplished violinist, only to be 

 produced hy long training. Cauglit young and 

 properly schooled, he might Ijccome an elegant 

 as well as a thorough whip; hut the late-comer 

 rarely attained both grace and comjilete mastery. 

 " He who would master this most fascinatiu": 

 science of coach man shij^," says Dashwood, in the 

 NeiD Sporting Magazine, " must begin early, 

 under good tuition. He must Avork constantly 

 on all kinds of coaches, and, thereby accustoming 

 himself to every description of team to be met 

 Avith, no matter how difficult or unpleasant, will 

 ere long acquire a jn-actical knowledge on that 

 all-important point, the art of j^^itting horses 

 well together." He then proceeds to sigh for 

 one hour of "old Bill Williams," of the " Oxford 

 Defiance," Avho, as a schoolmaster of gentlemen- 

 as2)irants to coaching honours Avas, in his time, 

 unequalled. He Avas supposed to have turned 

 out more efficient coachmen than all the rest of 

 his brethren put together. " Never by any 

 chance — confound him ! — Avould he alloAV an error 

 or ungraceful act to escape unnoticed, and I liaA^e 

 often got olf his box. so annoyed at his merciless 

 reproofs and lectures that I voAved no j^oAver on 

 earth should make me touch another rein for him. 

 The first morning, in particular, that I Avas Avith 

 him I shall never forget. In spite of all my 

 remonstrances, nothing Avould satisfy him but I 

 must take the reins from the door of the very 

 office, at the 'Eelle Sauvage,' he himself getting 

 uj) behind, in order, as he said, not to ' fluster 



