WASHIXGTON IRVING AND AN ENGLISH COACH. 305 



commissions to execute. Sometimes he delivers a 

 hare or pheasant, sometimes jerks a small parcel or 

 newspaper to the door of a public-house ; and some- 

 times, with knowing leer and words of sly import, hands 

 to some half-blushing, half- laughing housemaid an odd- 

 shaped billet-doux from some rustic admirer. As the 

 coach rattles through the village, every one runs to the 

 window, and you have glances on every side of fresh 

 country faces, and blooming, giggling girls. At the 

 corners are assembled groups of village idlers and wise 

 men, who take their stations there for the important 

 purpose of seeing company pass ; but the sagest knot is 

 generally at the blacksmith's, to whom the passing of 

 the coach is an event fruitful of speculation. The 

 smith, with the horse's heel in his lap, pauses as the 

 vehicle whirls by, the Cyclops round the anvil suspend 

 their ringing hammers, and suffer the iron to grow 

 cool ; and the sooty spectre in brown-paper cap 

 labouring at the bellows, leans on the handle for a 

 moment, and permits the asthmatic engine to heave a 

 long-drawn sigh, while he glares through the murky 

 smoke and sulphurous gleams of the smithy. 



" Perhaps the impending holiday might have given a 

 more than usual animation to the country, for it seemed 

 to me as if everybody was in good looks and good 

 spirits. Game, poultry, and other luxuries of the table 

 were in brisk circulation in the villages ; the grocers', 

 butchers', and fruiterers' shops were thronged with 

 customers. The housewives Vv-ere stirring briskly 

 about, putting their dwellings in order ; and the glossy 

 branches of holly, with their bright-red berries, began 

 to appear at the windows. 



"In the evening we reached a village where I had 

 determined to pass the night. As we drove into the 



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