COACHMEN. 299 



Unluckily for the creditors, tlie dividend paid was 

 so small that the recipients at once proceeded to 

 dispose of it in some sort of festivity, consisting 

 probably of a good dinner, accompanied by some- 

 thing to console them for their irreparable loss. I 

 think I may venture to state that it was not a Blue- 

 Eibbon party. That the occurrence did not awaken any 

 melancholy reflections in after years in Stacey's mind 

 I can bear a,mple testimony, from his hilarity when 

 he related the circumstances to me, not many years 

 since — long after all the coaches had been taken off" 

 the road by the Great Western Eailway. 



He drove the Bath mail about seven years without 

 any accident, although it was timed at a pretty good 

 pace, but not quite so fast as the Bristol, of which he 

 availed himself one foggy night as a sort of pioneer ; 

 but something being said about his being late, he 

 replied that he was quite sure that couldn't be the 

 case, as he had kept his leaders' noses close up to the 

 hind-boot of the Bristol mail, which should have been 

 some distance before him. 



In the Bristol mail sharing account will be seen an 

 item of ' Eunners, £1 13s. 4d.,' the meaning of which 

 I dare say may puzzle those of my readers who are 

 not intimately acquainted with London mail or coach- 

 ing accounts ; so I will explain it, especially as it is 

 connected with a somewhat ludicrous incident which 



