The coaching era . she is, onesees from her attitude how miserable she would lookuncovered. Fellow suffering engendered intimacy and, owing tothe close contact necessitated by the cramped spaceassigned to them, it was impossible for coach travellersto observe that icy demeanour, the haughty indifferencewhich seem inseparable from strangers in a railwaycarriage. People of all classes and dispositions found themselvestogether in a coach, even the fiery and the fat learnt tobear with each other; though, to be sure, fatness was athing hard to forgive. One can sympathize with thestout gentleman, wh
The coaching era . she is, onesees from her attitude how miserable she would lookuncovered. Fellow suffering engendered intimacy and, owing tothe close contact necessitated by the cramped spaceassigned to them, it was impossible for coach travellersto observe that icy demeanour, the haughty indifferencewhich seem inseparable from strangers in a railwaycarriage. People of all classes and dispositions found themselvestogether in a coach, even the fiery and the fat learnt tobear with each other; though, to be sure, fatness was athing hard to forgive. One can sympathize with thestout gentleman, who, anxious to ensure comfort bothfor himself and those who travelled with him, sent tosecure two seats, but, on arriving at the coachyard, found,to his chagrin, that one was booked outside and theother in. The four inside and twelve outside passengers weretogether for better or worse, and entirely under theauthority of the coachman and guard, which gave thema sense of comradeship, so that when their first restraint. f -v. < I DOWN THE ROAD 133 had worn o£F they entered naturally into hail-fellow well-met spirit was not always approvedof; the great Duke of Wellington considered that one ofthe greatest drawbacks to coaching was the nonsensea traveller was constrained to listen to; whilst FelixMendelssohn, when on a coach journey in 1829, wrote tohis family that English conversation consisted of walk-ing, coals, supper, weather and Buonaparte. Congenial companionship made all the differenceto the pleasure of the ride, and the passengers usuallyassorted themselves accordingly; sporting folk, whosechief interest lay in the horses, gravitated naturally tothe front of the coach, where they could talk horse,and enjoy coaching to an extent not imaginable to thefolk behind who did not know an off wheeler from anear leader. Some friendships begun on a coach lasted throughlife, others were less fortunate. A farmers daughter,travelling from Manchester to Margate, lent
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjecthorses, bookyear1900
