132 BOB 



havinir three coachmen instead of four, the situation of 

 the lower coachman had been materially improved, as 

 every one thought, because by it he had the benefit of 

 two coaches a day ; still he had from four to five hours at 

 Ely, that hung very heavy on his hands. 



This man had long been established on the coach, 

 indeed, he never drove any other. He had, by his civil 

 and oblio:ino; manner, secured the o-oodwill of the inhabi- 

 tacts of Lynn, and advanced in the favour of the gentry 

 in the surrounding district. 



Bob was no blustering, bouncing, flash dragsman, like 

 one or two I have already described, but a well-conducted, 

 straightforward, honest sort of man, who aspired to 

 nothing beyond being on good terms with his employers 

 and his passengers ; with his profession and with himself. 

 Neither was he any great scholar — indeed, he had been 

 educated for the box, and the box alone : for as a 

 boy, I was told, he used to stand between the knees 

 of his brother-in-law of half-a-pij^e notoriety, and learn 

 from him- — an excellent schoolmaster — how, in vulgar 

 parlance, to handle the ribbons. 



Thus had he grown, as it were, with the coach, and 

 become part and parcel of the establishment ; and when 

 it shone forth from the cloud of dirty shrimp baskets that 

 surrounded it, and Bob was called upon to do the polite 

 to old ladies and young gentlemen, he acquitted himself 

 with much credit, as well as satisfaction to his clients. 



His vocabulary was not very extensive ; neither did 

 his discrimination keep pace with the age; for Master 

 Henry and Master Fred, Master Richard and Master 

 Ed'ard, were applied as familiarly in full-blown manhood 



