BRITISH SPORT PAST AND PRESENT 



of gravity is pretty well kept down by four not slender insides, 

 two well-laden boots, and three huge trunks in the slide. The 

 gentleman of the last century, however, becomes alarmed — - 

 is sure the horses are running away with the coach — declares 

 he perceives by the shadow that there is nobody on the box, 

 and can see the reins dangling about the horses' heels. He 

 attempts to look out of the window, but his fellow-traveller 

 dissuades him from doing so : " You may get a shot in your 

 eye from the wheel. Keep your head in the coach, it 's all 

 right, depend on 't. We always spring 'em over this stage." 

 Persuasion is useless ; for the horses increase their speed, 

 and the worthy old gentleman looks out. But what does he 

 see ? Death and destruction before his eyes ? No : to his 

 surprise he finds the coachman firm at his post, and in the act 

 of taking a pinch of snuff from the gentleman who sits beside 

 him on the bench, his horses going at the rate of a mile in three 

 minutes at the time. " But suppose anything should break, 

 or a linchpin should give way and let a wheel loose ? " is the 

 next appeal to the communicative but not very consoling 

 proprietor. " Nothing can break, sir," is the reply ; " all of 

 the very best stuff ; axletrees of the best K.Q. iron, faggotted 

 edgeways, well bedded in the timbers ; and as for linchpins, 

 we have not one about the coach. We use the best patent 

 boxes that are manufactured. In short, sir, you are as safe in 

 it as if you were in your bed." " Bless me," exclaims the old 

 man, " what improvements ! And the roads ! ! ! " " They 

 are at perfection, sir," says the proprietor. " No horse walks 

 a yard in this coach between London and Exeter — all trotting 

 ground now." " A little galloping ground, I fear," whispers 

 the senior to himself ! " But who has effected all this improve- 

 ment in your paving ? " " An American of the name of 

 Macadam," ^ was the reply, " but coachmen call him the 

 Colossus of Roads. Great things have likewise been done in 



* John Loudon Macadam was a Scotsman by birth. Jn 1770, when fourteen years old, 

 he was sent to the care of an uncle in New York, whence he did not return till he was 

 twenty-six years of age ; hence the mistake in describing him as 'an American.' 



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