47 



CHAPTER III. 



" Ah ! sure it was a coat of steel 

 Or good tough oak he wore, 

 Who first unto the ticklish wheel 



'Gan harness horses four ; 

 Nor shuddered, as he rolled along, 

 To tread the mazy, whirling throng 

 Of furious coach with sluggish dray, 

 Contesting every inch of way 

 Through Holborn and the direful strait 

 Of Temple Bar or Bishop Gate." 



Sporting Magazine, 1 832. 



The Mail and Coach Days — Shap Fells — Drivers, Regular and Amateur 

 — Guards — Horses — Carlisle Races ; the late Mr. Daley — The 

 Wrestling Ring — Cumberland Wrestling Champions. 



SUCH was part of the ode, modelled after "Sic te 

 Diva potens Cypri," which was addressed to 

 the driver of The Times in 1827, when corn-chest 

 poets only sang of steam as " a demon foul," and 

 " better make a railroad to the moon " was a witty 

 retort, not to say quite a settler for the question, which 

 was stirring a few far-seeing souls. After all, the hor- 

 rors of Holborn or Temple Bar were far below those 

 of Shap and Stainmoor on a winter's night, when 

 coachman, guard, and passengers battled along in the 

 blast, or bore a hand with the snow shovels, and then 

 looked out anxiously for that tavern sign of " Welcome 

 into Cumberland," which told of deliverance from the 

 wilds of Westmoreland, and that snug little Penrith 

 was nigh. 



There were not many amateur coachmen on the 

 road, and the guards steadily set their faces against 

 the system, except in very particular instances. Any 

 passenger could object, and if the reins were not given 

 up at once to the regular coachman, the General Post- 



