338 THE COACHING AGE. 



that ' the house ' was crowded, because the entertain- 

 ment was given in a large room at the Bell Inn — 

 but that was quite full. The guard was well paid, 

 and, curiously enough, some 'years after worked on 

 the same coach with Benson. 



Having a fancy for some employment in connection 

 with coaches, Benson was in the habit of frequenting 

 the Bull and Mouth yard, and by some means or 

 other was one of the party at the annual coaching, 

 dinner which Sherman, like other London large coach- 

 proprietors, used to give. These dinners, however, 

 were restricted to the coachmen and guards in the 

 proprietors' service. 



Probably from a knowledge of Benson's singing and 

 ventriloquial talents, and his being a very good man 

 at a dinner-party, some guard or coachman obtained 

 leave to bring him. 



Sherman was very much pleased with him at the 

 dinner, and becoming better acquainted with him, put 

 him on the 'Union,' a day-coach to Leicester, as 

 guard. The coach drew up at the Peacock at Isling- 

 ton every evening on its arrival in London, and 

 Benson was there with it on every alternate evening. 

 On one of these occasions, while he was standing 

 there, he saw two gentlemen driving by in a gig with 

 a dog tied underneath. Immediately there was a 

 most frightful yelping and yelling, as if the dog had 



