COACH PROPRIETORS. 117 



at a time when there were about fifteen or sixteen 

 day and night coaches, with two mails, running 

 between London and Bath. 



Keferxing to the terms ' large coach -proprietors,' 

 sometimes made when applications were received by 

 them from persons in a smaller way of business 

 to join them in putting a coach on the road, he 

 observed : ' There are circumstances in which a man 

 would have sufficient influence to command a high 

 price for anything that he chose to off'er to people to 

 join him in.' 



' Mr. Brotherton, of Liverpool, for instance,' he said, 

 ' is an exceedingly opulent man. He may have most 

 of the large inns under his control, and he would lay 

 down his own practice and say, " I wUl build my own 

 coaches, and have such a price for them. If you 

 w^ant to work a coach from London to Liverpool 

 with me, I have no objection, but I shall 'find the 

 coach," It will,' said Chaplin, 'then be for us to 

 consider whether his interest in the town to fill 

 the coach is worth a sacrifice of so much a mile 

 for his machinery.' 



The stories of the road connected with Chaplin 

 must have been numerous, and some of them no 

 doubt very amusing ; but I regret that I am unable 

 to furnish many. 



A man having separate concerns on every road 



