OLD SPORTSMEN 141 



Mr. George Payne, were travelling from London to 

 Poole by post-chaise in the last decade of the coaching 

 days — that is to say, between 1830 and 1840. They 

 found the journey tedious, and so played ecarte, in 

 which they grew so interested that they continued 

 playing all day and into the night, the chaise being- 

 lit with the aid of a patent lamp which Mr. Payne 

 always took with him on a long journey. The play 

 was high; £100 a game, with bets on knaves and 

 sequences, and had been continued with varying 

 success, until when they were passing in the darkness 

 of night through the New Forest, Mr. Payne, who 

 had been a heavy loser for some time, had a run of 

 luck. In midst of this exciting play the post-boy, 

 who, in the secluded olades of the Forest, had manao-ed 

 to lose the road, stopped the chaise and, dismounting, 

 tapped at the window. But so engrossed were the 

 two travellers in the cards that they had not noticed 

 that the conveyance was standing still, and the 

 post-boy stood tapping there for a long while before 

 he was heard. 



' What on earth do you want ? ' angrily asked the 

 winning gambler, indignant at this interruption. 



' Please, sir,' replied the post-boy, ' I've lost my 

 way.' 



' Then,' rejoined Mr. Payne, pulling up the window 

 with a bang, ' come and tell us when you've found it, 

 and be damned to you I ' 



