The Works of Thomas Hood; Vol. 02 (of 11): Comic and Serious, in Prose and Verse, With All the Original IllustrationsHood, Thomas
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The Works of Thomas Hood; Vol. 02 (of 11): Comic and Serious, in Prose and Verse, With All the Original Illustrations
Hood, Thomas
English poetry -- 19th century; English wit and humor; Humorous poetry, English
THOSE who have travelled much, as inside passengers in a long
stage-coach, whilst they admired the facility of starting off with
one, must have occasionally remarked the difficulty of stopping with
it, just at the point where it would be convenient to be set down.
An ailing man may not have voice enough to lock all the four wheels
at once; and should he be, as is probable, a nervous man besides,
he will not without some hesitation make up his mind to request of
some stentorian neighbour the loan of a set of lungs. In a six-inside
coach, the timid occupier of a middle seat has no chance whatever,
unless to take advantage of the first casual halt, or an upset. Even
in the four-inside vehicle, a weakly, shy traveller’s case is equally
hopeless, supposing the passengers on the roof to have properly tucked
up the skirts of their great and little coats. To a bold, brassy fellow
even, with a tongue like a trumpet, it is anything but an easy affair
to say woh! with any effect to a Dart that is flying at twelve miles
within the hour. The coachman, who ought to hear, will not: the horses
hear but do not understand: the coach cannot hear: the outsiders admire
the pace too much to hear anything but the patter of the hoofs. At
last, when he has succeeded, the stout gentleman with the big voice,
who wants to run home, finds generally that he has a good hundred yards
or two allowed him of law, measured, as the Irish always mete it out,
_backwards_.
It was after a more serious dilemma,--for a little nervous bashful
man with a little squeaking voice like Punch’s, though he was not so
fond of exhibiting it, after suffering himself to be carried two miles
beyond his house, had at last fractured the small bone of his leg, by
opening the door in despair and jumping out,--that a discussion ensued
in the Brighton “Age” as to the best means of being let out to order.
Many different methods had been proposed before the little florid plump
gentleman in black delivered his opinion, with his back to the horses.
“For my own part, ratiocinating on hackney-coaches, I should
hypothetically propose check-strings.”
“Lord forbid!” exclaimed a voice from the other seat, on the same side.
Nobody remembered to have heard that voice before, from London to
Crawley Common.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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