3i8 STAGE COACH AND MAIL IN DAYS OF YORE 

 It may be translated : — 



While I was conveying various passengers with tlie greatest 



skill, Black Death intervened — 

 My machine is broken. 



An epitaph is (or was, for most of the stones in 

 late years have been cleared away) in Winchester 

 Cathedral yard to the last coachman of the Win- 

 chester and Sonthampton stage, bnt no record of 

 it has been fonnd. 



Par away, in Sonth Shropshire, on tlie north 

 side of St. Lawrence's chnrcliyard, Ludlow, 

 lies John Ainngdon, Avho died in 1817, and who, 

 according to his epitaph, "for forty years drove 

 the Ludlow coach to London ; a trusty servant, a 

 careful driver, and an honest man." 



His labour clone, no more to town 



His onward course he bends ; 

 His team's iinshut, his whip's laid up, 



And here his journey ends. 

 Death locked his wheels and ga\-e him rest, 



And never more to move. 

 Till Christ shall call him with the blest 



To heavenly realms above. 



In the same district, in tlie pretty churchyard 

 of Stanton Lacy, may lie found a stone to the 

 the memory of John Wilkes, of the Worcester and 

 Ludlow Mail, killed in 18015 by its overturning 

 in a flood. Some poetic friend inscribed this 

 tribute : — 



Alas ! poor Wilkes, swift down the winding hill 



The horses plunged into the fatal rill. 



The quiv'ring bridge broke down beneath the weight, 



And Wilkes was flung into the foaming spate. 



