XXVil 



started from Lismore at 5 a.m., and reached Water ford at 11 a.m., 

 returning at 3 p.m., and got back to Lismore at 9 p.m. ; therefore, for 

 eighteen years, Keogh was twelve hours a day on his box, and could 

 not have had more than six hours in bed, except on Sunday, when, 

 small blame to him, he stayed in it nearly all day. During these four- 

 and-twenty years this wonderful man was never oflf duty for a single 

 day, except a few just before he gave up. He was most abstemious 

 in drink, if not a teetotaller, but he eat heartily, particularly before 

 starting in the morning. Mr. Bianconi was not in favour of long 

 stages, so it may have been that there were four stages along the 

 line. Anyway, Tom was so wonderfully punctual that " Bian," rather 

 than their clocks, denoted to the country folk the time of day. 

 Although he carried a little horn, slung by a strap round his shoulder, 

 it was his stentorian voice and thundering oaths that notified to 

 those who might be obstructionists to faugh a hcdlagh, and this they 

 hastily did, knowing that Tom would drive over them if they did not. 



In about 1861 Bianconi disposed of the "road" to the late Mr. 

 William Cummins, at whose brother's hotel the car was always put up in 

 Waterford, and a coach was then substituted for the long car. John 

 Bates drove it for about twelve years, and Pat Thornton for five, until 

 August, 1878, when the railway was opened, but neither of these men 

 went further than Dungarvan. During the forty odd years that this 

 road was driven over there was only one serious accident to either the 

 car or the coach, and that was near Kilmacthomas in about 1860, a fact 

 which speaks volumes to the skill of the drivers, for there was a great 

 deal of traffic along the route, and upon fair or market days drunken 

 people were plentiful ; and although a guard was never employed, 

 neither car nor coach was ever attacked, even in the troublous times of 

 1848 and 1866. 



Mr. William Cummins, a respectable and worthy citizen of Waterford, 

 horsed and turned out the coach well, and when it was run off the road 

 by the railway it was the last of the long distance coaches which we 

 had in Ireland. This quondam representative of a grand old institution 

 has, however, gone to posterity with a record of safe travelling, which 

 is not likely to be accorded to its iron successor, while Tom Keogh has- 

 a history, perhaps, unparalleled in the history of coaching. He was — and 

 so were Bates and Thornton — as respectful and respectable as they 

 were skilful. A surly chap, whose name I forget, drove the coach 

 for a few months before it stopped, but he need not be counted. 



SHOOTING. 



Chapter XV. 



Osbaldeston's ShootiisG.— The feat recorded at p. 248 of the t^o- 



noblemen having a few years ago shot between them 98 pheasants out 



of 100 shots, bird for bird and shot for shot, wonderful work no doubt, 



was not nearly as fine a performance as that of George Osbaldestoa 



