WHAT BECAME OF THE COACHMEN 295 



jieojile and interests whose prosperity was honnd 

 up with the continuance of the okl order of things. 

 Coachmen were hv no means the s^reatest sufferers: 

 others felt the blow as severely, but in this chapter 

 Ave have no concern Avith the great army of inn- 

 keejoers, ostlers, post-boys and stable-helpers Avho 

 so suddenly found their occupation taken away 

 and no ncAV means of livelihood provided. 



What became of the coachmen ? In the A'ast 

 majority of cases Ave do not, and cannot, know ; 

 for if one thing be more certain than another, 

 it is that Ave are better informed in classic and 

 mediaeval lore than in the story of our forbears 

 of two or three generations ago, and that most 

 of tlie pa})ers aiul documents necessar}^ to a full 

 and 2)articular history of coaching have been 

 destroyed. 



Many among those not born in the age of 

 coaches liaA'e marvelled at Avhat they consider the 

 Avealth of reminiscences about the old coachmen. 

 The truth is that there exists no such Avealth. 

 There AA^ere certainly no fcAver than three thousand 

 coachmen throughout the country in the days just 

 b(;fore raih\'ays. What do Ave knoAV of them ? 

 Very little. Even their names have been for- 

 gotten, except in some (comparatiA^ely few) sj^ecial 

 cases. No one can giA^e us a complete list of 

 the coachmen of the Edinburgh Mail, of the 

 Exeter " Telegraph," or Devonport " Quicksilver," 

 or of any of the crack day coaches. Nearly 

 complete in some cases, but ncA^er quite, because 

 the reminiscent traA^ellers by famous mail or stage 



