302 THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 



vices from you great ones ; and you great ones, now and 

 then I ax pardon, my Lord borrows from us little ones. 

 When gentlemen leave off swearing, depend on it, it will 

 get very much out of fashion." 



At this moment one of the Birmingham and London 

 coaches gave our party the meeting, and called forth some 

 remarks from them on the superior style of the cattle, as 

 well as the improved build of the coach. It was full 

 inside and out, together with an abundance of luggage, 

 but was nevertheless proceeding at the rate of eight miles- 

 an hour, on rather a considerable ascent of ground. 



" What country in the world but England," exclaimed 

 Jack Webber, " can exhibit such a sight as that ? We 

 ought to be prouder of it than we are. There go half the 

 population of a village, together with all their traps, as 

 we call luggage on the Brighton road, carried at the rate 

 of a good nine miles an- hour, all stoppages included ; and, 

 although on what may be called a ticklish balance, as safe 

 as if they were in their beds, by the superior system of 

 putting horses into harness and driving them. I repeat, 

 we ought to be prouder of it than we are." 



" They tells me, Mr. Webber," said Jem Powell, " though 

 I scarce knows how to believe it, that we sha'n't be proud 

 of it long. They say coaching by horses is soon to be at 

 an end, and that we are to have coaches go of themselves 

 that is to say, by some kind of 'machinery which it is 

 not in my power to explain. This seems a hard case, to 

 knock up such a system as coaching, now that it is just 

 brought to perfection, or nearly so. It will be the ruin of 

 a great many people who now gets their living on the road. 

 But they tells me this is the case in most other things, 

 nowadays. Some busybody, with, perhaps, more brains 

 than his neighbours, and wanting to make himself rich, 

 without caring who he may make poor, comes out with 

 some new-fangled plans, and upsets all the old ones, which 

 did very well for us before." 



" There is some truth in- what you have said," observed 

 Lord Edmonston ; " this is a wise and understanding age ; 

 but if we look into the history of mankind, in all periods 

 of the world, we find men have arisen, from time to time, 

 who have changed the whole face of some department of 

 human knowledge ; nevertheless, Jem, you need not alarm 

 yourself on this point. I conceive you have been told that 

 carriages will be propelled on roads by what is called a 



