CHAPTER IV 



THE CHANGE 



A Coach Proprietor — Members of Parliament — A Welcome — Nelson's 

 Funeral— The Theatres — George Frederick Cooke — John Kemble 

 and Mrs. Siddons — The Country — A Death-bed Scene — An 

 Elegy — The Lawyer — A Second Blow — The Wine Merchant — 

 A Third Blow — A Valetudinarian — The Postmaster — A Scene 

 at the Dinner-table — A Consultation and Trial — Unexpected 

 Eesult — Philanthropy. 



It is now necessary the reader should be informed that 

 my father was a considerable mail contractor in the 

 district where he lived ; consequently largely embarked 

 in the stao-e-coach business — a business or avocation as 

 compatible with civic or even senatorial honours, excepting 

 a certain desideratum, as a partnership in an extensive 

 London brewery, or a Manchester manufacture, as 

 subsequent events have shown. 



The first among the few coach-proprietors who ever 

 attained this distinction stands an individual who was 

 originally a book-keeper in one of the i3rincij)al coach- 

 offices in London.^ Possessed of a dashing exterior, he 

 managed to possess himself, by a matrimonial alliance, 

 of considerable property ; and, upon the failure of his 

 employer, became sole proprietor of a large establish- 

 ment. Connected with one stage as well as another, he 



' Eichard Ironmonger, Esq., M.P. for Stafford. 



