62 ON THE TRACK OF THE MAIL-COACH 



secured for us at a leading hotel. But when the first 

 bill in due course came in for our entertainment, we 

 found that the apartments might well be deemed 

 sufficient in their appointments, inasmuch as we had 

 inadvertently occupied an ambassadorial suite. 



Now, the travelling allowances of officials of our 

 degree were not quite equal to those out of which an 

 ambassador presumably would defray his costs. So 

 we discovered that urgent business at once called us 

 to a distance, and we left Scarborough, and moved 

 southwards, with pleasant recollections but deiDleted 

 purses. Thus I arrived somewhat earlier than pro- 

 jected on the northern bank of the Humber. 



It is well known that Kingston in Kent, Kingston- 

 on-Thames, Kingston in Canada, Kingston, Jamaica, 

 and perhaps many other Kingstons, flourish ; but the 

 greatest of them all is certainly the north-eastern sea- 

 port of Kingston-upon-Hull. 



The true name of the great post-town next the 

 Humber is, however, in a fair way of being forgotten ; 

 and the little river, which rises at Driffield, twenty- 

 eight miles away, on which the town stands, and from 

 which it derives its modern title, is probably far more 

 widely known than even the broad estuary which 

 receives the Hull's inland waters. 



With the gradual change of name from Kingston to 

 Hull there has been a more rapid obliteration of the 

 former landmarks. There is no citadel now. It w^as 

 last used for military purposes in 1848, and its final 

 remnant — the south block-house — was pulled down in 



