BRITISH SPORT PAST AND PRESENT 



Then Mr. Smith himself was in no hurry ; he had a lamb about 

 his coach for one butcher in the town, and perhaps half a calf 

 for another, a barrel of oysters for the lawyer, and a basket of 

 game for the parson, all on his own account. In short, the best 

 wheel of the coach was his, and he could not be otherwise 

 than accommodating." 



' The coach arrives at Staines, and the ancient gentleman 

 puts his intentions into effect, though he was near being again 

 too late ; for by the time he could extract his hat from the 

 netting that suspended it over his head, the leaders had been 

 taken from their bars, and were walking up the yard towards 

 their stables. On perceiving a fine thorough-bred horse led 

 towards the coach with a twitch fastened tightly to his nose, 

 he exclaims, " Holloa, Mr. Horse-keeper ! You are going to 

 put an unruly horse in the coach." " What ! this here 'oss ? " 

 growls the man ; " the quietest hanimal alive, sir ! " as he 

 shoves him to the near side of the pole. At this moment, 

 however, the coachman is heard to say in somewhat of an 

 undertone, " Mind what you are about. Bob ; don't let him 

 touch the roller-bolt." In thirty seconds more they are off — 

 " the staid and steady team," so styled by the proprietor in the 

 coach. " Let 'em go ! and take care of yourselves," says 

 the artist, so soon as he is firmly seated upon his box ; and this 

 is the way they start. The near leader rears right on end ; 

 and if the rein had not been yielded to him at the instant, he 

 would have fallen backwards on the head of the pole. The 

 moment the twitch was taken from the nose of the thorough- 

 bred near-wheeler, he drew himself back to the extent of his 

 pole-chain — his forelegs stretched out before him — and then, 

 like a lion loosened from his toil, made a snatch at the coach 

 that would have broken two pairs of traces of 1742. A steady 

 and good-whipped horse, however, his partner, started the 

 coach himself, with a gentle touch of the thong, and away they 

 went off together. But the thorough-bred one was very far 

 from being comfortable ; it was in vain that the coachman 

 tried to soothe him with his voice, or stroked him with the crop 



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