44 THE EXETER ROAD 



one had as yet dreamed of the staircase. Other curious 

 points will be noticed by the observant, and among 

 them the fact that 'buses then had doors. The 

 present historian vividly recollects a door being part 

 of the equipment of every 'bus, and of the full- 

 flavoured odour of what Mr. W. S. Gilbert calls 'damp 

 straw and squalid hay ' which assailed the nostrils of 

 the ' insides ' when that door was shut ; but in what 

 particular year did the door vanish altogether '. Alas! 

 the straw, with the door, is gone for evermore, and 

 passengers no longer lose their small change in it to 

 the great gain of the conductor, who, by the way, 

 used to be called 'the cad,' even althouoh he commonlv 

 wore a ' top hat ' and a frock coat, as per the picture. 

 The word ' cad ' has since then acquired a much more 

 offensive meaning, and if you addressed a conductor 

 by that name nowadays, he would probably express a 

 desire to punch your head. 



The hideous statue of the Duke and his charoer 

 ' Copenhagen,' which the French said ' avenged 

 Waterloo,' was removed to Aldershot in 1884, when 

 the alterations were made at Hyde Park Corner. 



VII 



And now we come to the first toll-gate, which, 

 removed to this spot in 1825, opposite where the 

 Alexandra Hotel now stands, stood here until 1854. 



There were many troublesome survivals in 1837 

 which have long since been swept away. Toll-gates, 



