14 OLD STAGE-COACH 



top of a stage-coach. Haldown on the road from Exeter 

 to Plymouth may rival it in extent, and Moransconrt Hill 

 on that to Hastings in richness and splendour, . but 

 neither of those lengthened rides can come up to it in that 

 diversified and real picturesque beauty to which my pen 

 must fail to do justice. The vehicle I mounted was not 

 of the most elegant build, and was certainly capable 

 of those great improvements that Avere so freely 

 bestowed on such carriages before they were quite sent 

 off the road ; neither was the pace anything like what 

 was afterwards reached — thirteen or fourteen hours 

 accomplishing the seventy-two miles, subsequently done 

 in seven or eight ; still it was considered a great accom- 

 modation and a good equipment in those days. The 

 coachman, by whose side I sat, had particular charge 

 concerning me, and was pleased to point out the objects 

 most Avorthy of notice. 



Crossing the Common, where was exposed to view on 

 a gibbet the remains of a celebrated highwayman, called 

 Jerry Abbershaw, at whose dangling chains and half- 

 decayed bones in our holiday walks I had cast many a 

 stone, we ascended Kiugston Hill, leaving Coombe 

 Wood, the seat of Lord Hawkesbury, afterwards the 

 Earl of Liverpool, on the left, and Richmond Park on the 

 right, from whence you have a wide extent of prospect — 

 the Thames winding its majestic course to the great 

 metropolis from the foot of an eminence, where stands 

 the lofty towers of Windsor Castle (the residence of our 

 sovereigns for centuries), first washing with its yet un- 

 polluted Avaters the villas of Pope and Horace Walpole. 



Passing through the old and ill-paved toAvn of 



