They then describe a stage-coach dinner, contrasting it with one that could be had at all good inns on the road when travelling luxuriously in your own carriage. And they lay the scene at the "Red Lion," Henley-on-Thames; at the "Windmill," Salt-hill; at the "Pelican," Newbury; at the "Bear," Reading; at the "Sugar-loaf," Dunstable; at the "Dun Cow," Dunchurch; at the "Hop Pole," Worcester; at the "King's Arms," Godalming; at the "Castle," Taunton; at the "Lion," Shrewsbury; at the "Hand Inn," Llangollen, and at a variety of other excellent inns, many of which have been swept away since the introduction of the rail. They dwell upon the good old English country fare, which did not require the foreign aid of ornament. Not that they censure French cooking; but what they find fault with--and I heartily concur in this--is an attempt to transmogrify native dishes into Continental ones by what the newspaper advertisements term "a professed woman cook," who is as fit to send up a well-dressed _filet de volaille à la Parisienne_, a _Maintenon cotelette_, or a _Vol au vent à la financière_ as she would be to play a match of polo at Hurlingham, or to take the part of the Countess in the "_Mariage de Figaro_." The plain and perfect English dinners in bygone days generally consisted of mutton broth, rich in meat and herbs; fresh-water fish in every form, eels stewed, fried, boiled, baked, spitch-cocked, and water-suchet; the purest bread and freshest butter; salmon and fennel sauce; mackerel brought down by coach from the Groves of London, with green gooseberries, and the earliest cucumbers; a saddle of Southdown, kept to a moment and done to a turn; mutton chops, hot and hot; marrow-bones; Irish stews; rump-steaks tender and juicy; chicken and ham, plum-pudding, fruit tarts, trifles, and gooseberry-fool. Then the produce of the grape--no thin, washy claret, at eighteen shillings a dozen; no fiery port, one day in bottle; no sherry at twenty-five guineas the cask; but fine old crusted port, sherry dry and fruity, madeira that had made more than one voyage to India. Our readers must decide between the two opinions. CHAPTER VI. "MOVING ACCIDENTS" BY RAIL AND COACH--SHORT TIME FOR THE ISSUE OF RAILWAY TICKETS--RECKLESS DRIVERS--AN AFFAIR OF HONOUR--ANECDOTE OF THE LATE DUKE OF WELLINGTON. CHAPTER VI. A great deal has been written and said upon the subject of accidents in travelling, and comparisons have been made between those caused by rail and road. There can be no doubt that there has been an awful sacrifice of life and an enormous amount of injury attributable to the rail. Where hundreds formerly made their journeys by public mails and stage-coaches, or travelled in their own carriages, thousands upon thousands are now conveyed by steam; and out of those thousands how many are reckless and foolish!--scrambling into the carriages when they are moving, or rushing out before they stop.