302 HIGHWAYS AND HORSES. 



among the rattling pavements, where a jaunty seat 

 upon a coach is not so easy to preserve. Yoho ! down 

 countless turnings, and through mazy ways, until an 

 old inn-yard is gained, and Tom Pinch, getting down, 

 quite stunned and giddy, is in London. ' Five minutes 

 before the time, too,' said the driver, as he received his 

 fee of Tom." * 



Washington Irving published his "Sketch-Book" 

 soon after 1846. Gates speaks of it as a mercantile 

 failure ; what he means by that I am unable to say. 

 He certainly cannot mean that it was a literary failure, 

 as it was one of the most popular works he ever wrote, 

 and in England it is certainly the best known of any 

 of his writings. It was written after he visited 

 England, where he lived for some time as Secretary 

 to the American Embassy. In his "Sketch-Book" 

 he speaks of an English stage-coach as follows : 



"In the course of a December tour in Yorkshire, I 

 rode for a long distance in one of the public coaches, on 

 the day preceding Christmas. The coach was crowded 

 both inside and out with passengers, who, by their 

 talk, seemed principally bound for the mansions of 

 relations or friends, to eat the Christmas dinner. It 

 was loaded also with hampers of game, and baskets 

 and boxes of delicacies ; and hares hung dangling 

 their long ears about the coachman's box, presents 

 from distant friends for the impending feast. 



" I could not but notice the more than ordinary air 

 of bustle and importance of the coachman, who wore 

 his hat a little on one side, and had a large bunch of 

 Christmas greens stuck in the button-hole of his coat. 

 He is always a personage full of mighty care and 



* Dickens' description is picturesque, poetical, and excellent; 

 but why does he say Yoho ? 



