[F] It is worthy of note that these lines are generally misquoted. But the misquotations are improvements upon the original; as, in fact, the best known misquotations are. The usual version runs, “So down thy vale,” and substitutes “The Derby Dilly, with its three insides” for the original clumsy line, which fails to scan. Canning’s vivid picture of travelling by Dilly describes in an unapproachable manner the peculiar defects of its construction. There were those ingrates who, contemporary with the Diligences, did not appreciate them very highly. They valued speed more than safety. “You should have called it the Sloth,” said the traveller at the Hawes Inn, somewhere about 1790, referring to the “Hawes Fly, or Queen’s-ferry Diligence,” which then plied between Edinburgh and the shores of the Forth; “why, it moves like a fly through a glue-pot.” It is now necessary to turn aside for awhile to contemplate the final debasement of the Diligence, which in 1835 became, in the hands of Mr. George Shillibeer, something very like an omnibus. In 1829 he had introduced a line of public vehicles running from Paddington to the City, and had himself named them “omnibuses”; but in 1835 he appeared with a long-distance vehicle which he put on the Brighton Road and named “Shillibeer’s Improved New Patent Diligence.” By this, three classes of accommodation were provided: the “Coupé or Chariot,” to convey three persons, at £1 1s. each; behind it, in a separate compartment, the “Omnibus,” to hold eight, at 16s.; and the “Exterior,” as he somewhat grandly named the roof, accommodating an indefinite number at 10s. each. Shillibeer was a great advertiser, and gave this, as well as his omnibuses, due publicity. He was inordinately fond of advertisements cast in a metrical form, and accordingly his tame poet was made to grind out a set of halting verses which fully describe the beauty and convenience of his master’s new enterprise:-- In this age of novelty, railroads and steam, And of ships in the air, of which some people dream, For the safety and comfort of travellers of sense, Shillibeer starts for Brighton a new Diligence. This elegant carriage (Shil’s taste is well known) has been built by himself, on a plan of his own, And the world may be challenged, ’tis no vain pretence, For a conveyance to equal his new Diligence. At Charing Cross daily, at ten may be seen Three grey horses abreast, his trinity team, And all will allow he has spared no expense For a splendid set-out to his new Diligence. First comes the Coupé, just suited for three, Where the King, Queen, and Princess Victoria might be, For Royalty, even, could take no offence, So splendid and handsome is the new Diligence.