CONSERVATIVES 7 



find a pleasant tour and good usage, they will never 

 return to that which is decried as out of vogue ; 

 unless, indeed, they should reason as a Marlborough 

 stage-coachman did when turnpikes were first erected 

 between London and Bath, A new road was planned 

 out, but still my honest man would go round by a 

 miserable waggon -track called " Ramsbury narrow 

 way." One by one, from little to less, he dawdled 

 away all his passengers, and wdien asked why he was 

 such an obstinate idiot, his answer was (in a grumbling 

 tone) that he was now an aged man ; that he relished 

 not new fantasies ; that his grandfather and father 

 had driven the aforesaid way before him, and that he 

 would continue in the old track to his death, though 

 his four horses only drew a passenger-fly. But the 

 proprietor saw no wit in this : the old Automedon 

 "resigned" (in the Court phrase), and was replaced 

 by a youth less conscientious. As a man of honour, 

 I w^ould not conclude without consultino- the most 

 solemn-looking waggoner on the road. This proved 

 to be Jack Whipcord, of Blandford. Jack's answer 

 was, that roads had but one object — namely, waggon- 

 driving ; that he required but 5 feet width in a 

 lane (which he resolved never to quit), and all the 

 rest might go to the devil. That the gentry ought 

 to stay at home and be damned, and not run gossip- 

 ing up and down the country. No turnpikes, no 

 improvements of roads for him. The Scripture for 

 him was Jeremiah vi. 16.^ Thus, finding Jack an 



^ ' Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for tlie old paths, where 

 is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your 

 souls.' 



