Mr. FOX AS A HORSEMAN AND COACHMAN. 



205 



guished were much improved by the practice he got in 

 driving coaches from a very early age. Mr. Fox, it mubt 

 be remembered, was the connecting link, if I may be allowed 

 to use such a term, between the old and the new methods 

 of quick travelling. Gentlemen of a preceding generation 

 travelled in their own carriages drawn by post-horses, and 

 it was not till 1786,3 little above a hundred years ago, that 

 the real glories of the road began. In a few years the 

 improvement in public conveyances was so great, and the 

 service was so much better, that they became generally used 

 by all classes, but it was not till Macadam had rendered 

 himself immortal by his new system of road-making, that 

 the words of Nimrod, ' Coach travelling is no longer a 

 ' disoustino- and tedious labour, but has lono- since been 

 'converted into comparative ease, and really approaches to 

 ■something like luxury,' could be said to apply literally. 



Mr. Fox's first experience of a stage coach has been 

 told before, I believe, but the story is such a good one, and 

 is, moreover, so typical of the change which was rapidly 

 coming over the country with the development of the 

 coaching system, that it must be given once more, and in 

 the squire's own words : ' 1 was shivering under the archway 

 ' at Wetherby, when ten years old,' he writes, ' my father 

 ' having sent me to meet the Glasgow mail, just put on 

 'the line from Doncaster, running via Pontefract, Aberford, 

 'Wetherby, &c. " Coachey" was at breakfast. My father's 

 ' servant was ordered to book me an inside place to London 

 ' on my way to Eton, and to give the guard a guinea to look 

 ' after me. A stout fellow with red face came up, and said, 

 ' "Are you young Fox?" "Yes." "Why, you've booked inside ! 

 ' "a gentleman rides upon t'box ; come wi' mea ! " He went 

 'to the office, and said, "This young gentleman has made a 

 ' " mistake ; he wants outside to London, not inside ; give us 

 '"back two guineas." (Inside fare was four guineas, outside 



