s
much ease as if it had only been a bonnet, and it was rather proud than
otherwise of its head-dress. The driving seat was as capacious as the
other parts of the machine, and we had much interesting conversation
with the Jehu--whose epithets, we are sorry to say, as applied to
railroads, were of that class of adjectives called the emphatic. There
is to be a cross line very shortly between Basingstoke and Reading,
uniting the South-Western and Great Western Railways--and then, what is
to become of the tremendous vehicle and its driver? The coach, to be
sure, may be retained as a specimen of Brobdignaggian fly, but my friend
Jehu must appear in the character of Othello, and confess that "his
occupation's gone." Thank heaven! people wear boots, and many of them
like to have them cleaned, so, with the help of Day and Martin, you may
live. "That's the Duke's gate, sir," he said, pointing with his whip to
a plain lodge and entrance on the left hand. "The lodge-keeper was his
top groom at the time Waterloo was--and a very nice place he has." This
was Strathfieldsaye: there were miles and miles of the most beautiful
plantations, all the fences in excellent order, the cottages along the
road clean and comfortable, and every symptom of a good landlord to be
seen as far as the eye could reach.

"If it wasn't for all this here luggage," said Jehu in a confidential
whisper, with a backward jerk of his head towards the moving pyramid
behind us; "we might go through the park. The Duke gives permission to
gentlemen's carriages."

So the poor man deluded himself with the thought, that if it wer'n't for
the bandboxes, we might pass muster as fresh from the hands of Cork and
Spain.

"That's very kind of the Duke."

"Oh, he's the best of gentlemen--I hears the best of characters of him
from his tenants, and all the poor folks round about." Now here was our
driver--rather ragged than otherwise, and as poor as need be--bearing
evidence to the character of the greatest man in these degenerate days,
on points that are perhaps more important than some that will be dwelt
on by his biographers. The best of characters from his tenants and the
poor;--well, glorious Duke, I shall always think of this when I read
about your victories, and all your great doings in peace and war; and
when people call you the Iron Duke, and the great soldier, and the hero
of Waterloo, I shall think of you as the hero of Strathfieldsaye, and
the best of characters