172 THE COACHING AGE. 



prevent the disease from extending to the other pro- 

 prietor's horses working in the coaches, when they 

 arrived at Twyford fresh poles and bars were put to 

 the coaches, and her horses worked with them down 

 to Hungerford, when they were taken off, and others 

 put on to continue the journey. The same course was 

 adoptedfwith the up-coaches when they arrived at 

 Hungerford. 



After the coaches were driven off the road by 

 the Great Western Eailway, she continued to reside 

 at Thatcham ; but the King's Head, like many of the 

 other inns on the old coach-roads, has been converted 

 into private dwellings. 



The other coach-proprietor to whom I have referred, 

 was Thomas Cooper, who resided in the same village 

 with Miss Fromont, though their houses were some 

 little distance apart, hers being just at the entrance 

 to Thatcham from London, and his ' Cottage' at the 

 end nearest Bath, but just clear of the village. 



At one time he kept the Castle Hotel and posting- 

 house at Marlborough, a large house, formerly a seat 

 of the Earl of Hereford, and afterwards of the Duke 

 of Somerset, built on the site of the old castle, 

 and hence called the Castle Hotel, a noted house in 

 the days of road-travelling, but now merged in the 

 extensive building of Marlborough College. 



A story is told of the King of the Belgians stopping 



