[Illustration: HOBSON, THE CAMBRIDGE CARRIER. "Laugh not to see so plain a man in print; The Shadow's homely, yet ther's something in't. Witness the Bagg he wears, (though seeming poore) The fertile Mother of a hundred more; He was a thriving man, through lawfull Gain, And wealthy grew by warrantable paine, Then laugh at them that spend, not them that gather, Like thriveing Sonnes of such a thrifty Father."] It is a song that goes to a reckless and flamboyant tune, an almost Handelian melody that is sung with a devil-may-care toss of the head and much emphasis; a rare, sweet, homely old country ditty-- "When first I went a-waggoning, a-waggoning did go, I filled my parents' hearts with sorrow, trouble, grief, and woe; And many are the hardships, too, that since I have gone through. Sing wo! my lads, sing wo! Drive on, my lads, heigh-ho! For who can live the life that we jolly waggoners do? It is a cold and stormy night: I'm wetted to the skin, But I'll bear it with contentment till I get me to my inn, And then I'll sit a-drinking with the landlord and his kin. Sing wo! my lads, etc. Now summer is a-coming on--what pleasure we shall see! The mavis and the blackbird singing sweet on every tree. The finches and the starlings, too, will whistle merrily. Sing wo! my lads, etc. Now Michaelmas is coming fast--what pleasure we shall find! 'Twill make the gold to fly, my lads, like chaff before the wind. And every lad shall kiss his lass, so loving and so kind. Sing wo!" etc. And so forth. Hobson was not this kind of man. He had his horse-letting business in Cambridge, where, indeed, he had forty saddle-nags always ready, "fit for travelling, with boots, bridle, and whip, to furnish the gentlemen at once, without going from college to college to borrow"; but he continued throughout his long life to go personally with his waggon, and died January 1st, 1631, in his eighty-sixth year, of the irksome and unaccustomed inaction imposed upon him by the authorities, who forbade him to ply to London while one of the periodical outbreaks of plague was raging in the capital. Dependable in business as Hobson was, he prospered exceedingly, and amassed a very considerable fortune, "a much greater fortune," says one, "than a thousand men of genius and learning, educated at the University, ever acquired, or were capable of acquiring." This is not a little hard on the learned and the gifted, by whose favour and goodwill he prospered so amazingly. For, be it known, he was not merely and solely _a_ carrier; but _the_ carrier, especially licensed by the University, and thus a monopolist. Those were the days before a Government monopoly of the post was established, and one of Hobson's particular functions was the conveying of the mails. He was thus a very serious and responsible person.