322 HIGHWAYS AND HORSES. 



Hon. FItzroy Stanhope, Colonel Spicer, Colonel 

 SIbthorpe, cum multis aliis, been thrown away upon 

 persons who have looked up to them as protectors ? 

 Certainly not ; neither would the improvement in 

 carriages — stage-coaches more especially — have ar- 

 rived at its present height, but for the attention and 

 suggestions of such persons as we have been speaking 

 of. 



" The fashion, however, was not one of venerable 

 standing among us — gentlemen coachmen not having 

 been known in England for more than about half-a- 

 century. We believe we ourselves remember the Anglo- 

 Erichthonius — the late Hon. Charles Finch, brother to 

 the late Earl of Aylesford, who used to drive his own 

 coach-and-four, disguised in a livery great-coat. Soon 

 after his dSui, however, the celebrated ' Tommy 

 Onslow,' Sir John Lade, and others, mounted the box 

 in their own character. Sir John was esteemed a 

 renowned judge of coach-horses and carriages, and a 

 good coachman of the old school ; but everything 

 connected with the coach-box has undergone such a 

 change in the last twenty-five years, that the Nestors 

 of the art are no longer to be quoted. Mr. Warde, the 

 father of the field, may now, we believe, be called the 

 father of the road also ; and if the old heavy Gloucester 

 ' six inside and sixteen out, with two tons of luggage,' 

 were to reappear on the road, no man's advice would be 

 better than his." 



John Mytton, of Halston in Shropshire, was born on 

 the 30th of September, 1796, and when he came of 

 age inherited an enormous fortune, which he did his 

 best to dissipate ; he became widely known by his 

 eccentric and extravagant exploits. We do not hear 

 much of his driving a four-in-hand coach, but he was a 

 great tandem driver, and on one occasion was actually 



