178 THE COACHIFTG AGE. 



large number of temporarily disabled horses, whose 

 places were filled up by a man named Alexander of the 

 Barbican. The cottage, stables, and paddock were a sort 

 of hospital for his sick and otherwise inefficient stock, 

 and it was by no means an unusual thing for Mrs; 

 Cooper to turn up her sleeves and make bran-mashes 

 upon an emergency for some of the horses. 



Among his coachmen was one with a wooden leg,, 

 who married Cooper's sister or daughter, and from 

 this circumstance, I suppose, had sufficient interest to 

 get put on the coach and drive from London to 

 Thatch am, down one day and up the next. 



Curiously enough, when this man was about to get 

 married, he bought a cork leg for the occasion. 

 Whether under the impression that it might be the 

 right thing in the right place in the event of the 

 ' Cork Leg ' being sung at the wedding breakfast, or 

 with the idea that he would be somewhat raised in 

 the bride's estimation if he led her to the hymeneal 

 altar with a cork leg instead of his ordinary wooden 

 appendage, I don't know ; at all events, she declined 

 the intended compliment, and expressed her deter- 

 mination not to marry him at all unless he was 

 married with the wooden leg, to which he accordingly 

 consented. 



What became of the cork leg I don't know, nor do 

 I suppose at this distance of time there is any means 



