is coach, and
that some other day might have been selected for its first
appearance. However, the "Defiance" started on the Sunday
afternoon, amidst the shouts and imprecations of guards, coachmen,
and ostlers, contending one against the other, and having one
ill-looking outside passenger, whose name was _Revenge_.

An interesting occurrence took place at Ilminster. The new
"Defiance" was expected to arrive there, on its way from town,
between nine and ten on the Sunday morning, and it was determined
to honour it with ringing the church bells. The heroes of the
belfry were all assembled, every man at his rope's end, "their
souls on fire, and eager for the fray;" the Squire was stationed
about a mile from Ilminster, and seeing the coach, as he thought,
coming at a distance, he galloped through the street in triumph,
gave the signal, and off went the merry peal. Every eye was soon
directed to this new and delightful object, when, guess the
consternation that prevailed upon seeing, instead of the _new_
"Defiance," the poor _old_ Subscription trotting nimbly up to the
George Inn door, and Tom Goodman, the guard, playing on the
key-bugle, with his usual excellence, "Should auld acquaintance be
forgot?" The scene is more easily imagined than described; it would
have been a fine subject for Hogarth. The bells were now ordered to
cease; the Squire walked off and was seen no more. Honest Tom was
not accustomed to this kind of reception; he had enlivened the town
with his merry notes a thousand times, but now every one looked on
him with disdain, as if they did not know him. He could scarcely
suppress his feelings; but after a few minutes' reflection he
mounted his seat again, and, casting a good-tempered look to all
around him, went off, playing a tune which the occurrence and the
sublimity of the day seemed to dictate to him--"Through all the
changing scenes of life." Some of the good people of Ilminster who
were going to church admired Tom's behaviour, and said it had a
very good effect. Tom arrived safe with his coach at Exeter about
one o'clock, having started from London one hour and a half after
the "Defiance," and performed the journey in nineteen hours and a
half. The "Defiance" arrived about an hour after the Subscription;
but the proprietors