158 COACH-BUSINESS 



reigned triumphant — natives and foreigners — tradesmen, 

 high and low — innkeepers and publicans — artisans of 

 every denomination — men and women of all descriptions 

 — from the greatest contractor down to the humblest 

 bumboat woman, or the itinerant organ-grinder — Jews, 

 Germans, and Gentiles, were all making money : — the 

 reader may therefore well suppose I was not in a bad 

 position. 



The coaches of which I had become part proprietor 

 were constantly loaded, and the monthly dividends 

 exceeded all that was ever known on any other road, as 

 I had afterwards the means of ascertaining. I took 

 advantage of the large profits accruing from my business 

 to extend its ramifications in every possible way. Con- 

 stantly in the habit of purchasing horses both in London 

 and country fairs, I was looked upon as a pretty good 

 judge of the animal. My coaches were all well horsed, 

 the teams well matched for pace, and I had them of all 

 colours — grays, bays, chestnuts, roans, duns, skewballs, 

 and blacks — and at the hour of starting they usually 

 attracted the attention of the inhabitants, both civil and 

 military. I hunted with both the Hampshire and the 

 Hambledon hounds, was generally well mounted, and 

 always took care to have fast trotters to drive either in 

 single or double harness, occasionally exhibiting in a 

 tandem. 



Thus I became well known, and was often applied to by 

 officers in the garrison and gentlemen in the neighbour- 

 hood for a charger, a good cob, or a pair of match-horses 

 for a carriage, and generally managed to supply their 

 wants with satisfaction to them and credit to myself. 



