1 38 The Pytchley Hunt, Past and Present, [chap. iv. 



if the reports of the time are to be believed, completed 

 the task without suffering any serious fatigue. The 

 match was made between the rider and Lieutenant 

 Wellesley of the 12th Lancers, then quartered at 

 Northampton. The coach and the horse quitted the 

 Peacock, Islington, at a quarter before six, and Mr. 

 Daniel arrived at Northampton, amid the acclamations of 

 a large concourse of people, one minute and a half earlier 

 than his competitor. The hero of this feat did not 

 survive to share the fate that after the opening of the 

 London and Birmingham railway awaited many of his 

 brethren of the whij). ^^Ichabod^^ was indeed written 

 on the brows of J. Harris of the Northampton coach, 

 and J. Meecher of the '^ Nottingham Times/' when each 

 was reduced to driving a " one-horse bus ^' about the 

 streets of the town through which for many a year they 

 had tooled four well-shaped steeds. Nor could '^ Davis,'' 

 driver of the ^' Manchester Telegraph '' — the fastest 

 coach out of London — entertain kindly thoughts of the 

 advance of science, when he found himself a " walking 

 postman '' on certain remote highways and byways of 

 Northamptonshire. It is scarcely a matter for surprise 

 that, in common with many a brother of the craft 

 of which he was so great a master, he strove to drown 

 his cares in that usual refuge of the destitute — alcohol. 

 Pindar, somewhat before the time of Sir W. Lawson, 

 assured his fi'iends that apiarov fxev vBcop, i.e. that water 

 is the bebt of all good tipple ; but the ex-coachman 

 didn't seem to see it, and so hastened the end of a life 

 out of which a great public benefit had filched all the 

 brightness. Some of my readers will not fail to 

 remember the sad end of Jem Pearson — the honest. 



