CHAPTER XXIII. THE END OF THE JOURNEY 278 APPENDIX 285-308 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS _ON STONE_ BY JOHN STURGESS. I. WYLE COP, SHREWSBURY, "A MINUTE BEFORE TWELVE" _Frontispiece._ II. HORSES IN A HEAP, LEADER DOWN, WHEELERS FALLING OVER HIM _to face page_ 50 III. WENT OVER BANK AND HEDGE " 52 IV. OBSTRUCTION ON THE BRIDGE " 120 V. GALLOPED THE FIVE MILE STAGE IN EIGHTEEN MINUTES " 130 VI. EXTRA PAIR OF HORSES FOR FAST COACHES FOR STEEP ASCENTS " 172 VII. ONCE MORE RUNNING A STEEPLECHASE " 244 VIII. WE MET THE LOOSE HORSE TEARING DOWN THE HILL " 246 _ON WOOD._ THE EXTRA COACH AT CHRISTMAS " 233 DIAGRAMS. I. A NEAT MEETING " 248 II. A MUFFISH MEETING " 248 III. DOWN HILL " 254 IV. A SUDDEN EMERGENCY " 254 V. THE TEAM EXTENDED " 256 VI. THE TEAM GATHERED " 256 AN OLD COACHMAN'S CHATTER, WITH SOME REMARKS ON DRIVING. INTRODUCTION. I think it is Dr. Johnson who has somewhere remarked, that "everyone who writes a book should either help men to enjoy life or to endure it." Whether these few pages will have the former effect I know not, but if they only help to dispel _ennui_ for an hour or two, they will not have been written quite in vain, and, at any rate, I trust they will not be found so unendurable as to be unceremoniously thrown out of the railway carriage window, or behind the fire. Though several books on the same subject have been already published, I entertain a hope that this may not prove "one too many," as the interest taken in coaching, so far from diminishing, would appear to be increasing, judging by the number of coaches running out of London and other places, some even facing the inclemency of winter in the love for the road. The number of private drags also never was so large. "Nimrod" put it at twenty to thirty in the early part of the century. It must be nearly four times that now.