the other horse galloped to the residence
of my brother-in-law, about a mile and
a half distance, to obtain assistance. This



112 GYPSIES.

was immediately granted, in the shape
of three or four stout labourers and a
strong cart-rope, but on our return to
the scene of my misadventure I found
the coach upon her legs and in the
road, the ladies again in the inside, and
only waiting for me to put to, and
proceed on the journey.

In this part of the forest was a plain
or large dale, that afforded scope and
shelter to a number of those wandering
people whose virtues are the theme of
some of our first writers of fiction, though
in real life these are exhibited chiefly
in the hen-roosts and dovecotes of the
neighbouring farmers. Hence the quick
and workman-like manner in which all
things had been put right. After thank-
ing the motley group of males and females,
children and adults, I proceeded on my
journey safely to the end, arriving a little
less than an hour beyond the usual time,



GAME. 113

Ruminating on the accident, our harm-
less escape, and the ready assistance we
had received, it struck me that I had
neglected to reward the good people
who had so promptly and so efficiently
put forth their exertions in my behoof;
but in going to unload the hind-boot,
1 found that I need be under no un-
easiness on that score, as, anticipating
my forgetfulness in the hurry of depar-
ture, they had rewarded themselves with
two or three baskets of game that I had
taken up at Liphook, deeming pheasants
and hares a greater treat to them, than
to the people to whom they were ad-
dressed, or their friend, the owner of
Holly combe; and even for this I had to
be thankful, for had they made choice
of one or two of the ladies' trunks for
a reward, I should have had much more
trouble in restoring them, or finding an

VOL. II. I



114 VALUABLE KNOWLEDGE.

equivalent, than I had in paying Mr.,
afterwards Sir C. Taylor, for his game.

It was a maxim of one of the oldest
London proprietors,* never to employ a
man who had not had, at one time or
another, an overturn for this plain rea-
son, not having such experience he would
not know how to get a coach up again;
I, although not possessing this valuable
knowledge, could now take credit for
it.

This, without creating any very great
cry to my disadvantage in the town for
the fog and the darkness of the night
were extenuating circumstances called
forth the strong remonstrances of my
father, who was still the London pro-
prietor; and elicited, at the same time,
the dislike my family had to my remain-
ing in such a situation.

But, however, this, like the other little

* Mr. Roberts, of the " White Horse," Fetter Lane.



FAKM. 115

faux pas, was soon forgotten. In the
meantime, I began to grow weary of
my occupation. The coach, like all
others not now supported by the war,
loaded light during the winter months;
the passengers some above, some below,
generally offered me the gratuity, and
I was not sufficiently initiated to ask
for it.

My landlord offered to relieve me from
the lease of the farm, knowing full well
that the capital I had expended would
soon invite another tenant. Not being
enabled to indulge in my former
amusements, without neglecting my daily
business, I resolved to leave the neigh-
bourhood ; therefore making both the
farm and the stock of horses, har-
ness, &c., over to my father, I bid a
long farewell to my native county, re-
solved to seek in the metropolis employ-
ment on some road where I was not

i2



116 LEAVE HOME.

known, to await the chance of some in-
cident likely to restore me to my lost
position a very vain and foolish expec-
tation.



117



CHAPTER IV.

THE CROWN PRINCE.

Amor Patriae Domestic Arrangement Emery A Revo-
lution Education A Swell Dragsman Contrast
Leamington A Proposition Warwick Castle Stone-
leigh Abbey and Kenilworth An Agreeable Surprise
A New Start Idle Hours A Country Walk Gorham-
bury A Pleasing Adventure Sir Harbottle Grimstone
and Lord Bacon again Reflections and a Refection
An Invitation The Consequences A Scene at South
Minims.

IF there be one feeling more common to
our kind than another, it is that of at-
tachment to one's native place; and leav-
ing it generally creates regret. This ap-
plies, perhaps, as well to individuals and



118 HOME.

families as to nations; though among the
latter it is more remarkable, inasmuch as
it is strongly developed in the uncivilized
portions of our fellow-creatures. History
and experience teaches us this.

The Esquimaux cannot be prevailed on
to quit the desolation of his frozen re-
gions; the Negro sighs for a return to
the pestiferous vapours of his tropical
clime ; and the Bedouin exults in the
deadly blast of his arid desert. The
more polished members of the human
family, who boast of a superior know-
ledge of the great Author of the Universe,
and profess, if they do not practise, doc-
trines deduced from His revealed will,
have long enjoyed the benefits of a so-
cial and commercial intercourse with each
other, and have found a home in every
clime, even in the most distant parts of
the globe ; yet with all the advantages
their moral condition and physical con-



NATIVE COUNTY. 119

stitution give them, whether luxuriating
in the voluptuous pleasures of the east,
or penetrating with indomitable courage
and perseverance the recesses of savage
nature in the west, also cherish a
vivid remembrance of the home of
their fathers, and a proud regard, if not
a latent hope for, a return to it.

Now, it is no affectation to say, that it
was with some such feeling as this I
left my native county. It is true, I was
but little removed from it ; but as for
again enjoying the society to which I
had been accustomed, or indulging in
the pleasures her beautiful hills and dales
afforded me, I might as well have been in
the Bush in Australia for even there my
thoughts could only revert, as here they
have never- ceased to do, to times and
scenes of the past.

As my father still retained one of the
minor establishments in London, and had



120 LEAMINGTON.

a residence there, I made it my home.
My mother I found in declining health,
and principally for her benefit, my father
proposed taking a house at Leamington,
in Warwickshire, vainly hoping to stay
the progress, or alleviate the agony, of a
disorder, the cure of which was impossible.

As the only coach to this place, cele-
brated for its mineral waters, and the
beauty of the surrounding country, was
from our yard, at my father's desire I
went down, and of course became ac-
quainted with the proprietors on the
road, and those of the fraternity who
figured on the box.

I had not, as yet, acquired sufficient
knowledge of the moral merits of any
individual engaged here in the Coaching
business for this plain reason, I had not
associated with them long enough. In my
own locality, and in my father's estab-
lishment, I had hitherto known them



COACHMEN. 121

only as servants or inferiors, and there-
fore could know but little of their habits
or character when off the box.

It is true, I had heard of one or
two, who had visited the antipodes on
Government business (loike), as Emery
used to say, in the character of Tyke,
in the "School of Reform"; but this might
have happened from a misconstruction of
the law of meum and tuum, to which all
were liable; or, at any rate, from the
different interpretation given to it by
master and man. The causes of such
a distinction 1 therefore simply thought,
could not apply to any of those noted
practitioners whose company was sought,
and dress and manners imitated, by gen-
tles and nobles, and who indeed appeared
to me to be as much beyond such vulgar
imputations as their employers.

As I am now about to speak of some
of the members of the fraternity, it will



122 CONTRAST.

not be considered out of place if I here
give a slight sketch, or general outline, of
this sect of the community as it at that
time existed a time of transition, be it
remembered, from the old school to the
new ; from the votaries of gin and beer
from those who delighted in the purly
dews of the morning to those who
basked in the noonday sunshine of Sherry
or Moselle; from the old box-coat, with
its hundred capes, slouched hat, and
huge bare chapped hands, to the cape and
Mackintosh, nobby tile, and white gloves.

I have in a former chapter given an
account of the peculiar sort of depreda-
tions committed on the poor sailors,
with which I was afterwards made ac-
quainted; these, though no doubt com-
mon, were confined to one or two par-
ticular roads.

But the old school had passed away
with the clumsy vehicles, and coarse and



PROPRIETORS. 123

vulgar members of the cloth, fit only
for an ignorant generation ; and another
and more accomplished race of men had
sprung up, with the improved or new-
invented carriages, faster pace, and better
accommodation, that the changed circum-
stances of the nation, from war to peace,
and the consequent improvement in trade,
manufacture, and commerce, had put in
requisition.

In most parts of the country, and on
roads of 100 miles and more in extent,
which led principally to manufacturing
towns and districts, innkeepers were the
principal proprietors ; and the employ-
ment falling mostly in the night, the
drivers were generally selected from their
own stable-yards ; and it was considered
a promotion to put a postilion on the
mail, who was afterwards advanced to
one or other of the coaches on the same
line of road.



124 OXFORD COACHING.

Not so with Brighton, Oxford, and
other towns at the distance of 50 miles
or so from the metropolis. Here a more
daslring professor was sought, to give a
more attractive appearance to the whole
turn-out; and to those places, men who
had gained some little notoriety, by their
superior skill and strong nerve, resorted
for employment. At this period, and for
some time before, the whole business in
the last-named place had been in the
hands of one man, who had inherited
it from his father or uncle ; and, under
the masterly superintendence of Richard
Costar, Esq., Oxford set an example to
the whole kingdom, and acquired a cele-
brity for the advance it had made in
the general improvement of public con-
veyances.

In this school, and under this gen-
tleman's fostering protection, some of
these men had thrived, and after-



SLANG. 125

wards showed their gratitude by leaving
his service, and becoming the principal
instigators of a competition, opposition
it may more properly be termed, which
gained them a celebrity many of the
more youthful professors were anxious to
acquire. These men, and such as these,
were sought by the London proprietors
when they started any new coach,
whether in opposition, or to some newly-
discovered fashionable watering-place.

About this time, too, a sort of flash
language, called slang, was very much in
use, and it was considered almost a neces-
sary accomplishment, and a recommenda-
tion for employment on the box, although
the candidates had picked it up in the
purlieus of St. Giles's, and among asso-
ciates who were now and then unwilling
pleaders at the bar of the Old Bailey. It
was not then thought necessary to know
anything of the moral condition of the



126 COACHMEN.

man -whether he were the husband of
one wife, or lived in the grossest immo-
rality. A good outward appearance,
plenty of confidence, and a notoriety, it
mattered riot by what means, or at whose
expense, acquired, were qualifications
sufiicient to obtain employment in the
first establishments in London ; whereas
the same qualifications might, and did,
cover others that should have conducted
their possessors to the penal settlements.
But it will not do to look too narrowly
into the characters of our public men, in
whatever sphere they may be placed, or the
country would lose the services of many
able denizens.

Notwithstanding this, there were coach-
men whose aspirations did not lead them to
so lofty a pitch of celebrity, and who were
content to live in the approbation of their
employers and in the general esteem of
their fellows.



SWELL MOB. 127

Now, upon the coach that went to
Leamington, or rather through Learning-
ton and Warwick to Birmingham, and
which had been denominated the " Crown
Prince," in honour, I suppose, of the
French heir to the throne of Sweden,
there were four men employed one at
each end, and two in the intermediate
ground ; and two out of the four were
good specimens, though from an opposite
view, of the description I have given.

The man who officiated out of London
was one of those flash gentlemen who
possessed all the characteristics (and
would, from his appearance, at the pre-
sent day, be pointed out), as one of the
members of the swell-mob : indeed, that
might have been his principal avocation,
and this only a subordinate one, for he
assumed to be acquainted with every
thief in London. His stature was short,
and his head protruded from his rounded



128 ARISTOCRACY.

shoulders like a wen ; the contour of his
countenance was something akin to a
hawk ; his eye indicative of a prowling,
knavish disposition ; and his whole ex-
pression was not unlike that inimitable
representation of Ancient Pistol by little
Simmons, as he was called. His man-
ners were coarse, his speech vulgar, and
his conversation of the worst and lowest
description. His knowledge did not seem
to extend beyond the prize-ring, and his
principal patrons consisted of those un-
fortunate scions of the aristocracy, who,
not from choice, took up their residence,
for a time, within certain prescribed
limits in the immediate neighbourhood
of the Fleet Prison, allotted them by the
law. I was not a little surprised to find
this man an especial favourite with the
innkeepers and proprietors on the road,
and was fain to attribute the dislike I
had to the man to prejudice, or want of



FLUNKIES. 129

knowledge of what should constitute a
respectable and desirable servant. Indeed,
his natural bearing, made up of impu-
dence, ignorance, and swagger, would
convey an impression to the unthinking
that he was a person of considerable im-
portance.

Passing over the next, who was, or had
been, a gentleman's coachman, or flunkie,
and had acquired his position, as our
younger sons of nobility and others do
in the army, by purchase; I come to
the third, whom I found to come a little
nearer to what I had pictured to myself
ought to be the conductor of a public
conveyance, loaded with visitors to a
fashionable watering-place. As the up
and down coaches met midway, and the
men exchanged seats and way-bills, the
other man had told him who I was, con-
sequently there needed no introduction.

VOL. II. K



130 LEAMINGTON.

He was a fine, tall, good-looking young
man, and an excellent workman. The day
was fine, the company all of the better
sort, and in conversation with those on
the roof, he seemed quite at his ease. We
dined together at Southam, and, after
discussing a bottle of port, soon became
on familiar terms.

Arriving at Leamington, he pulled up
and put me down at the " Royal," and,
his day's work terminating at Warwick,
but two miles farther, he said that he would
return and spend the evening with me.
With this I was much pleased, as my
father had not yet moved the family
down, and I was quite a stranger.

In the meantime, I walked over this
new town, that had sprung up like a
mushroom. My father had told me that
the house I should alight at was, in his
time, the only house in the village ; and
that, upon one occasion, he and his partner,



CONTRAST. 131

when he first had possession of the large
establishment in London he had lately
left, stopped there on their way from
Shrewsbury, where they had been to
establish a new coach, and, having to
remain all night, they drank all the wine
and spirits the landlord had in his
house a proof of the former insignifi-
cance of the now flourishing town of
Leamington, with its sixteen thousand
inhabitants; a contrast that a paltry pot-
house afforded, with some of the most
splendid hotels in the kingdom.

My friend soon returned, and, in com-
pany with the host, a merry, facetious,
at the same time most hospitable little
man, whose society I enjoyed many times
afterwards, I spent a very agreeable
evening.

The consequence of that day's ride
and that evening's association was, that
I had to undertake to drive the London

K2



132 PROPOSITION.

end of this said coach, of which my new
friend was part proprietor.

I had not much time to consider
their proposition, after retiring to rest;
for the length of the ride and the
goodness of the entertainment caused me
to sleep very soundly. Waking early in
the morning, I recalled the overnight's
conversation, and, after some little deli-
beration, resolved to profit by it as soon
as occasion would permit.

I had been offered a situation as a com-
mercial traveller in a large wine-house in
London ; but having known some of these
gentlemen, and observed how their habits
tended to a short, though to them per-
haps a pleasant life, I hung, as it were,
in the balance more particularly as the
man I was to succeed was then in the
last stage of diseased liver and lungs, at
something considerably under forty years
of age.



WARWICK CASTLE. 133

I did not immediately return to town,
but, at the invitation of mine host, who
was a capital fellow, I remained nearly
a week, enjoying the salubrity of the air
in daily drives one day going to Warwick
Castle, whose tall keep and old walls,
with its galleries filled with portraits,
and its halls lined with ancient armour;
its extensive domain, as viewed from
the western front or windows, gives a
pretty good idea of what a feudal baron
was, and brings to recollection the deeds and
character of the last and most powerful of
that class, whose name is illustrious in our
history as the King-maker, and is the
subject of one of the best productions of
the best of novelists ; * the next day going
to Stoneleigh Abbey, then the seat of Chan-
dos Leigh, Esq., who was afterwards
ennobled by the title of Lord Leigh,
and still holds possession of one of the

* " The Last of the Barons."



134 KENILWOKTH.

most beautiful seats in the county of
Warwick. Afterwards I went to Kenil-
worth, now a ruin, but to me not half so
romantically situated or so interesting as
those of Corfe, although its history is rife
with incidents of the court of Queen Bess,
and is the scene of one of the most
admired fictions of the great Wizard of
the North.

My evenings were spent in company
with my friend, who returned from his
drive about six, and daily we became
more closely allied; nor did he one day
omit to importune me to take hold, as
he termed it, in which he was always
backed by our little merry host. To this
I could give no satisfactory response, as
I felt considerable unwillingness to ask
even my father to displace any man on
my account. What was my surprise,
then, when, on his return one evening,
I could but observe, though always a



A CHANGE. 135

good-tempered looking man, his eyes
sparkled with unusual joy as he told me
that Humpy as he called him was off;
that my father, annoyed at his insolent
and assuming manner, had summarily
dismissed him, and had sent out " a yokel "
with the coach, and would insist upon
it that the box was reserved for me. I
did not doubt the former part of his
information, but the latter I did very
much. However, nothing would do, in-
hospitable as it may seem, but that I
must return with him in the morning
which I did, equally charmed with my
reception and his good intentions towards
me, deeply impressed with the beauty of
the county, and ready to subscribe to
the truth of its celebrity for good ale
and pretty women.

Arrived in London, I prevailed on my
father, much easier than I expected, to
allow me to take possession of the box;



136 JOURNEY.

and on the following Monday I entered
on my new vocation. To speak techni-
cally, the drag to which I was appointed
was the first, and continued some few
years the only, day-coach to Birmingham.
After passing through St. Albans, Dun-
stable, Stony Stratford, Towcester, and
Weedon, it proceeded through Leamington
and Warwick, turning out of the direct
road (through Coventry) at Daventry, mak-
ing the whole distance 112 miles.

Starting from London at five in the
morning, my functions ceased at Red-
bourn, a large village four miles beyond
St. Albans, where I had to await the
arrival of the up-coach from Birmingham
at six in the evening, and then return
to London, which I reached between
nine and ten.

With this arrangement I was by no
means displeased, for the reason that
everything was new to me. I wanted



REDBOURN. 137

change, and I had it. I was removed
from the scene of my former enjoyment,
it was true; but the regret for that was
counterbalanced by the satisfaction I felt
at being comparatively unknown in what
I could but consider my present menial
condition. I drove none but my father's
cattle, therefore I had no blustering coun-
try proprietor to bully me. At the inn
or public where I stopped at Redbourn
the passengers breakfasted, so that I col-
lected my fees without any difficulty;
and though at first with some little re-
pugnance, this was soon obliterated by
the generally cheerful manner in which
the custom of a spontaneous offering was
adhered to. Another thing, the coach
loaded well, seldom in the summer months
a day passing without a full complement
of passengers, and, I may say, almost
all of a very genteel description ; so
that in a little time I became recon-



138 MAILS.

ciled to my fallen estate, with which, no
doubt, the certain remuneration, without
any risk or outlay on my part, had
much to do.

But how was I to pass my time ?
The many hours I should have to re-
main waiting for the up-coach, how were
they to be disposed of? The place being
a great thoroughfare, on the highroad to
Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Lei-
cester, Nottingham, Sheffield, &c., the
mails to those places, with many other
coaches, changed horses there, and it
might be called a depot for horses and
horse-keepers ; consequently the inhabi-
tants consisted chiefly of publicans, and
a few small shopkeepers and tradesmen.
Many other coachmen stopped here, but
none so long as myself, as mine was
the first coach down in the morning,
and the last up at night. At first I
felt this vacant time as a great incon-



PARK SCENERY. 139

venience, which, however, I presently
found means to alleviate by indulging
in my fondness for books ; and fre-
quently, on a fine day, I would saunter
about the lanes and fields with one in
my hand.

On one of these occasions I found
myself in what had a semblance to a
gentleman's park; and, observing a rustic
seat under a wide-spreading oak, I took
the liberty of setting myself down and
resting. I liked the spot so much for
it was on the rise of a hill, and com-
manded some beautiful scenery that I
repeated my visit several times, till one
day I was accosted by a man, dressed
like a gamekeeper, who, after asking my
name, which I did not hesitate to give
him, touched his hat, and departed. The
next day, to my great surprise, I re-
ceived a note from the owner of the
mansion and park, threatening to indict



140 LEISURE.

me for a trespass should I make my ap-
pearance there again. Upon inquiring
why such a proceeding was thought ne-
cessary, I found I was suspected of being
in search of pheasants' eggs; and this
caused a very angry correspondence be-
tween me and the gentleman, in which
I did not fail to animadvert upon the
illiberal construction he had put on my
innocent recreation.

I should not have mentioned this slight
incident, were it not to contrast it with
another of a very opposite nature. Saun-
tering one day in another direction, after
wandering along bye-paths, through fields
and woods, I emerged suddenly on a green
lawn, in full view of a fine mansion.
It would have appeared that I was ob-
served, for a person issued from the lower
apartments, came towards me, and, raising
his hat, politely asked if I wished to see
the house. Surprised at his question, as



LORD VERULAM. 141

well as his manner, I said (having my
late error uppermost in my mind) I was
sorry I had so unwittingly trespassed, but
if he would be kind enough to point out
the nearest way to the turnpike road, I