364 THE COACHING AGE. 



cry, and on looking round he saw the bundle of white 

 clothes in which "the child was enveloped lying under 

 the fence or hedge. The rush of the distracted 

 mother, and the joy with which she clasped her child 

 in her arms, the coachman said had never been erased 

 from his memory. 



■ Seeing that there was no further harm done, and 

 that the ' Cobourg ' people had only to reload their 

 coach, he wished them ' Good-night,' and proceeded 

 with his own coach on his journey up to London. 



Of the accident to the Liverpool 'Umpire,' the 

 old coachman gave this account : 



It occurred in the winter, when, owing to an 

 obstruction in the road below Dunstable, occasioned 

 by a heavy fall of snow, four or five coaches started 

 together from Eedbourn. They all went at a pretty 

 good pace — not racing* — and passing each other only 

 at the difi"erent changes. 



In this way they proceeded to the Green Man at 

 Finchley, where they pulled up, and of course, 

 according to the- almost universal custom, had some- 



* There was not much racing in the ordinary pace of the 

 ' Umpire,' as it was timed at less than eight miles an hour, being 

 allowed just ten hours more than the mail ; but on the ' Umpire's' 

 time-bill was this curious note : ' If the time is not strictly kept 

 (accidents excepted), the passengers are particularly requested not 

 to give the coachman and guard their usual perquisite.' I pre- 

 sume that no coachman or guard ever showed a time-bill to a 

 passenger. 



