INN YARDS AND STABLES. 107 



would be either covered with dust or mud, and the 

 passengers, if not asleep, frequently looked utterly 

 worn out ; whereas the passengers on the day-coaches 

 out of town, looked spick and span, the coaches were 

 bright and clean, the brass on the harness shone out 

 resplendent, and all spoke of new-born energy and 

 life. 



All the great London coach proprietors had stables 

 down the road ; Nelson had one at Hounslow, Chaplin 

 at Whetstone, and Home had one at Finchley, where 

 a coach called the "Bedford Times" used to make 

 the first change, Chaplin had a large stable on the 

 Brighton road, just beyond Croydon, and Mr. Harris 

 says, "That if you look sharp, just at the right time, 

 as the Brighton train whirls you by, you may see 

 it, but you will scarcely recognise it as a stable, as 

 the stables have all been converted into cottages, 

 which form a square enclosing what was formerly 

 the yard ; it stands about fifty yards from the road, 

 and has large lofts at one end in which all the hay 

 and straw was kept." 



As I have said in another part of this book, the 

 roads were formerly much wider than they are now ; 

 almost in every case where grass is to be seen along 

 side the road, that is, between the road and the fence, 

 this was formerly a portion of the road ; if this had 

 not been the case, the fence would have come up to 

 the edge of the road, and the wide grass space which 

 is so frequently seen, and which in hunting countries 

 is so pleasant to ride on when going to a meet or 

 on quitting the hounds, would have been thrown into 

 the fields alongside, and would have been owned by 

 M^hoever owned the land through which the road 

 pursued its way. The space which we now see on 



