188 H. VILLEBOIS, ESQ. 



told you plainly, with him it was not " out of sight out of 

 mind." Living in the midst of a shooting country, 

 owning and hiring manors to a considerahle extent, rearing 

 and preserving game in greater quantities than any 

 nobleman or gentleman in the county, his house was 

 always full of company in the shooting season, and their 

 coming and going tended as much to the support of the 

 coach as to my own individual advantage. Indeed, from 

 their conversation I learnt that my name was frequently 

 in their host's mouth, and that to him I was indebted for 

 the notice and patronage I received from many of his 

 neighbours and visitors. Latterly, his family growing up, 

 he generally travelled post with the ladies ; while his 

 eldest son — a fine specimen of his race — stuck to the box, 

 and I had much pleasure in imparting to him a few rules 

 that, perhaps, assisted in making him a perfect master of 

 that art in which he as much delighted as he excelled all 

 others in the three necessary ingredients — ^judgment, skill, 

 and execution. 



There Avas a neiahbourinii- Squire who was as fond of 

 driving four horses as himself, but, like most amateurs, 

 he Avas far too fond of the whip, Avhich he would exercise 

 with much skill, but little mercy ; consequently, his judg- 

 ment was often at fault, and on one or two occasions he 

 gave serious proofs of his lamentable deficiency in the 

 first qualification necessary to make an adept in driving. 

 The other rode with me more frequently ; and one day, 

 when his father accompanied him, and the son had hold 

 of the reins, they very much admired a leader I had in 

 my own team. The senior said, — 



" Don't you think, Harry, our Johnny" (the name of 



