CHAPTER IX. 



NO HORSES, NO COACHMAN. 



CoACH-PEOPRiETORS, like partners iu other businesses, 

 would sometimes have differences among themselves, 

 when one of them would threaten to take his horses 

 off, which might be the means of carrying his point ; 

 failing which he might even put his threat into exe- 

 cution, leaving the other partners to carry on the 

 coach as best they could. 



I know only of one instance in which this actually 

 occurred ; it was on the old Shrewsbury ' Union,' 

 which ran through Birmingham, Oxford, and 

 Woodstock, and on the arrival of the coach in the 

 night on its up-journey, at the inn where it changed 

 in Woodstock there were not any horses to go on. 

 Ultimately, however, four were procured, but not 

 having regular four-horse harness they could not be 

 driven. There was, moreover, only one postboy on 

 the spot, and he, being drunk, was not available. In 

 this state of things there appeared to be but one 

 course to adopt, which was accordingly put into 



