154 ON THE TRACK OF THE MAIL-COACH 



chioness ; the other, the wife of Earl Canning, who 

 gave me mj appointment. 



To this inn they brought the captured leader of the 

 French attack on Fishguard, somewhere between the 

 outbreak of the war with France in 1793 and the 

 Peace of Amiens in 1802. The inn has lodged 

 Horatio, Yiscount Nelson of the Nile ; it has seen the 

 Government riders go through at full gallop with 

 express mails, changing horses on the old bridge over 

 the fine river Towy, and off again before the bystander 

 could realize that they had fairly drawn rein at all. 



In 1821 the Ivy Bush, I gather from Mr. Spurrell,* 

 missed its opportunity. His Majesty King George lY. 

 passed through Carmarthen. The town forthwith 

 lost its head. In the prevailing enthusiasm, populace 

 and post-boys conspiring, the spent four, which had 

 galloped up from St. Clair's Bridge, were detached at 

 the tanhouse, and did not go on to the inn. A fresh 

 four, evolved from no one knows where, were in- 

 stantly put to, and instead of smiles and salutations 

 bemg exchanged with a loyal multitude lining the 

 Bush windows, the landlord bowing at the door and 

 foreseeing knighthood at the King's hands, the royal 

 chaise was spurred across the Towy and on the road 

 to Brecon or Neath, before the fervent crowd had 

 become well aware of the fact that the King had been 

 in their midst. Eoyalty had a better chance of being 

 seen when, in Jul}^, 1863, H.E.H. Prince Arthur slept 

 at the Ivy Bush. 



* ' Carmarthen,' etc., 1879. 



