320 STAGE-COACH AND MAIL IN DAYS OF YORE 



tliat he might, as he said, enjoy the satisfaction 

 of hearing his hrother whips pass and repass. 



Similar directions are said to have been left 

 by Luke Kent, reputed to have been the first 

 guard ever appointed to a mail-coach. The story 

 goes that he Avas buried at Farlington, near 

 Portsmouth, on the Chichester Road, and left an 

 annual bequest to his successors on the Chichester 

 coach, on condition that they should always sound 

 their horns when passing the place of his inter- 

 ment. Diligent inquiry, however, does not disclose 

 the fact of any one of that name lying at 

 Farlington ; but a Prancis Paulkner, who died 

 at Petersfield, May 18th, 1870, aged eighty-four 

 years, lies in a vault in Partington churchyard. 

 He was a i?uard on the " Hocket " London and 

 Portsmouth coach, and local gossip still tells 

 that he left a request (perhaps also a bequest) 

 that if ever stage-coaches should pass his vault, 

 their horns should Ijc sounded. Certainly, a few 

 years ago, Avlien a coach was run from Brighton 

 to Portsmouth, its horn was always sounded on 

 passing the churchyard. 



A conclusion shall be made with the eulogy 

 of Robert Pointer, coachman on the Lewes stage, 

 Avhich he is said to have driven thirty years 

 without an accident. It does not apjiear what 

 relation be was to the one-time famous " Pob 

 Pointer," of the Oxford Pioad, and in 18'5t on 

 the Brighton " (Quicksilver " — a favourite coacbing 

 tutor. Th(d Bob J'ointer, according to the Duke 

 of Beaufort, could always be depended on to 



