320 HIGHWAYS AND HORSES. 



present day. In the old coaching days, very many 

 gentlemen used to drive the public coaches. 



Captain Barclay it was who, for a bet, drove the 

 mail right through from London to Aberdeen, and 

 then offered to drive the London mail back, but Lord 

 Kennedy, who made the bet with him, did not care to 

 renew it. 



A Mr. Stevenson, a graduate of Cambridge, horsed 

 and drove a coach called the "Age," which ran to 

 Brighton ; his passion for the bench got the better of 

 all his other ambitions, and, as Nimrod says, "he 

 became a coachman by profession. He died very 

 young ; but not before he had arrived at perfection in 

 his art. His education and early habits had not, 

 however, been lost upon him ; his manners were those 

 of a gentleman, and it may fairly be said of him that 

 he introduced the phenomenon of refinement in a 

 stage coachman. At a certain change of horses on 

 the road a silver sandwich-box was handed to his 

 passengers by his servant, accompanied by the offer 

 of a glass of sherry to such as were so inclined."* 



Nimrod goes on to say : " Well-born coachmen 

 prevail on this road. A gentleman connected with 

 the first families in Wales, and whose father long 

 represented his native county in Parliament, horsed 

 and drove one side of the ground with Mr. Stevenson; 

 and Mr. Charles Jones, brother to Sir Thomas Tyrwhit 

 Jonds, had a coach on it, called the ' Pearl,' which he 

 both horsed and drove himself. 



"The Bognor coach, horsed by the Messrs. 

 Walkers, of Mitchel Grove, and driven in the first 

 style by Mr. John Walker, must also be fresh in the 

 recollection of many of our readers ; and Sir Vincent 



* Nimrod evidently considered that the pro;luciion of this 

 sandwich-box and glass of sherry was a convincing proof of good 

 breeding. 



