COACH PROPRIETORS. 179 



of ascertaining. As a coachman on the Bristol road 

 said to me a few years since : ' I should think he 

 must be dead, wooden leg and all.' 



Cooper's coachmen were mostly large powerful 

 men, but he ultimately found out that smaller yet 

 quicker and more active young men were better, as 

 he observed to one of this class that it would have 

 saved him some thousands of pounds if he had 

 employed men of that calibre earlier. Before he 

 had formed this opinion a thin young man one day 

 applied to Cooper to be put on one of his coaches. 

 He was, however, so much smaller than his usual 

 standard that Cooper looked at him with some little 

 surprise and smiled, giving the applicant :to under- 

 stand that he was not big enough for the place ; he 

 did, however, eventually get put on, and for some 

 time drove the night-coach on the lower ground from 

 Thatcham to Bristol, was afterwards moved on to the 

 upper ground, and continued to drive up and down 

 from London as long as the coaches remained on the 

 road. 



As Cooper was particular about time being kept, 

 no coaches being allowed to pass his, in answer to any 

 complaints by the coachmen as to the horses, his 

 answer was sometimes : ' You find whipcord and I'll 

 find horses.' 



After carrying on the coaches for some years, and 



12—2 



