THE "ROEBUCK" 51 



The company also was mostly of the first order. We were 

 patronized liberally by some of the first houses of the 

 nobility and gentry, whose mansions and estates lay in 

 the counties of Oxford or Gloucester — particularly those 

 of Somerset and Berkeley ; and I believe I may boast of 

 being the first who put reins into the hand of the late 

 Duke of Beaufort, then ]\Iarquis of Worcester, who soon 

 became a proficient in the art. The other family had a 

 seat at Cranford Bridge, about four miles beyond 

 Hounslow, lono; the residence of the late Countess : and 

 as the sons counted six or seven in number, I frequently 

 had the honour of the company of one or other of them 

 on the box. 



I always found them free and affable, as I ever did most 

 others of true nobility, with whom I often came in 

 contact. 



On one occasion, I remember, when one of the junior 

 members of the family, who has since rendered himself 

 conspicuous in their unhappy divisions, accompanied me 

 on the box, and we had spent the morning in agreeable 

 conversation, 1 happened to say that I had never seen a 

 certain celebrated actress off the stage, but that I 

 admired her very much on. " Oh," he said, " I expect 

 them up to-day," meaning his brother and tlie lady. We 

 had scarcely arrived at the " Roebuck " at Oxford, where 

 I stopped, before a carriage drove up with four post 

 horses, the owner of Berkeley Castle inside, with a lady 

 whom I immediately recognized as the one we had been 

 speaking of. The Colonel I knew also, as who did not 

 who had once seen his handsome person? My late 

 companion went to the carriage-door and chatted a 



