3o6 STAGE-COACH AND MAIL TN DAYS OF YORE 



specimens of blank verse. He planned and wrote 

 a History of Coachiufj, but in the bankruptcy of 

 his printers the manuscrijit disappeared, and so 

 what might have proved a really valuable work 

 was lost. At last, in 1865, he found a home in 

 lluijo'ens' Colle£]re, a charitable institution at 

 North fleet, founded and endowed some twenty 

 years earlier by a wealthy City merchant for 

 gentlemen reduced to poor circumstances. This 

 testimony to his social superiority above other 

 coachmen seems to have cheered and invigorated 

 him amazingly, for he was a collegian at Huggens' 

 beneficent institution for twelve years, and lived 

 to be nearly eighty- six years of age. 



Less fortunate Avas Jack Peer, or Peers, of the 

 Southampton " Telegraph," famous in his day, but 

 reduced to driving an omnibus, and thence, being 

 morose and quarrelsome in that position, by de- 

 grees to the workhouse. His unhappy situation 

 became known to a gentleman who had often 

 travelled by him in brighter times : a handsome 

 subscription was raised, and he was at least 

 enabled to end his days in quiet retirement. 



A great many ex-coachmen became innkeepers 

 and publicans. Among these was Ambrose Pickett, 

 of the Brighton "Union" and "Item," who 

 anticipated the end of Brighton coaching in 1841, 

 by becoming landlord of an inn in North Street, 

 A\ itli the very ajipropriate sign of the " Coach and 

 Horses." 



A much more famous coachman than he — Sam 

 Hayward, of the ShreA\'sbury "Wonder "—followed 



