WESTWARD HO I 263 



pistol out of the arm-chest, and prepared at once to 

 finish off the constable on the spot. 



On this the arm of the law postponed its rigours. 

 The coach drove off jubilant towards Sligo ; while the 

 oat-cart horse was left contemplating the firmament 

 from the altitude of a first-floor window. 



In due course Meighan was haled before the magis- 

 trates. He threaten a constable ? Not he, indeed ! 

 Never did milder man smile from a coach-top. The 

 pistol was neither cocked nor presented. It was 

 merely produced from moral motives, and quite in a 

 Pickwickian sense — rather, indeed, as an aid to the 

 constable in performing a difficult and delicate duty 

 than as a hindrance. So he got off. 



Cork, as will have been seen, had in 1837 the use 

 of two Dublin mail-coaches, one starting with the 

 day mail at noon, and the other with the night mail 

 at seven p.m. Both took twenty hours for the 

 journey. The route of the latter coach included the 

 beauties of Kilkenny, once, probably still, accounted 

 ' one of the most elegant towns or cities in the 

 kingdom . . . which has fire without smoke, earth 

 without bog, water without mud, air without fog, and 

 streets that are paved with marble.' 



To so much perfection there was at that time but 

 one drawback — the heavy postage to Dublin, viz., 

 eightpence. 



The day coach took the other route, and ran 

 through Cashel, in county Tipperary, and by its 

 famous rock. But it did so at half an hour after 



