40 
House & Garden 
In the hright lexicon of Pullman cars there are no names that 
compare with the life stories blazoned on the sides of the Birming¬ 
ham Tally-Ho! coaches. Modern social opportunities, too, are tame 
BUCKS, FRILLS, and HORSEFLESH in OLD ENGLISH PRINTS 
And what hostelry of today can boast the importance of The Lord 
Nelson Inn? What are a beggarly half-dozen taxis against these 
— '"four-in-hand, ichisky, buggy, gig, dogcart, curricle and tandem” 
Ancient Gossip and Scandal that Lend 
an Air of the Ancestral to a Room 
CLIFFORD POPPLETON 
Prints by Courtesy of M. Knoedler & Co. 
Furniture by Hampton Shops 
Y ou are waiting one day in the roomy 
hall of some friend’s country home, 
before a cheerful open wood fire, perhaps, 
what time George puts on his heavy shoes 
preparatory to joining you in an exhil¬ 
arating tramp through the cold-whistling 
woods of early winter, when your glance 
leaves the dancing firelight for a moment 
and notes an old print hanging in a thin, 
black frame above the heavy oaken 
mantelpiece. 
Your deep chair before the 
crackling logs is too pleasant to get 
out of, though, and you think, as 
you toast your toes, of the big 
snows that are due, and what times 
they must have had of it traveling 
in the old days before the limou¬ 
sine and the luxurious transcon¬ 
tinentals simplified locomotion. 
Having a hazy liking for prints, 
scenes of ye olde Englishe stage¬ 
coach days and that sort of thing, 
don’t you know, you resolve that 
when George comes down, and it 
is really necessary to cease basking, 
you will take a good look at that 
fellow up there. 
Your knees begin to get so con¬ 
founded hot, however (bless the 
fellow, he’s had time to put on 
forty pairs of shoes), that you get 
up, and George arrives just as you 
are tip-toeing on the hearth with 
your muddy feet in an endeavor to 
look at the print and avoid scorch¬ 
ing your shins at one and the same 
time—and not succeeding. 
B eing a man of some practical 
sense, George takes it down, 
and leads you firmly over to the 
window-seat where you may ad 
mire it in comfort without dangei 
of complete incineration. 
got into one of these contrivances passes 
your comprehension. There’s no step in 
sight, and it’s four feet if it is an inch 
from the ground to the floor of the egg¬ 
shell. Ah! maybe she was lifted in; that’s 
the idea, decidedly. Some women were 
lifted in, anyway. ’Twould come natural 
to a gallant age, ’pon my honor. 
But there’s more in the print than a 
barouche, there is fine action. My 
lord Boldblade is on the box, hands 
full of reins and whip, and he is 
tooling four spanking, grays down 
the road at fifteen an hour or 
you’re a Dutchman. Two silk-hat- 
ted flunkies are perched up on a 
ledge at the back of the flying 
equipage. 
“By gad, they’re stepping it out!’’ 
“How’s that for horseflesh ?’’ 
“What an elastic motion!” 
“Those fellows led a rare life.” 
“I should say.” 
“How much did it cost you?” 
“Two hundred and eighty, at an 
auction in New York.” 
“Eor the love of Mike, what a 
price!” 
“The bidding started at ten dol¬ 
lars, and there were half a dozen 
in the game up to a hundred and 
fifty. It’s a rare impression; en¬ 
graved by R. Hixon, 1813.” 
“Any more around ?” 
“Yes, I’ll show you sometime. 
Let’s get out now, or we shall be 
back late for supper.” 
A nd so it goes ; George sells you 
one or two prints cheap, and 
you buy others whenever the 
chance offers. Sometimes you 
spend ten and sometimes fifty. It 
is a new excitement in life. 
{Continued on page 64) 
“Eine old thing,” says he casually. 
Mighty little cares he for your opinion; 
you are no collector. 
“A Barouche.” You read the title. H’m, 
so that is a barouche. It is like nothing 
so much as half an eggshell, oval end down, 
suitably paneled, and sprung high and dry 
above four spidery wheels; a Cinderella’s 
coach for fragility. How any woman ever 
Remnant of the swashbuckling beaux themselves, the at¬ 
mosphere of an old sporting print is a certain antique swagger, 
a venerable smartness; as witness this bit of hallway 
