which they served. In the 'Bride of Lammermoor' we
have a graphic picture of these pedestrian accompaniments of the coaches
of "Persons of Quality."

"The privilege of nobility in those days," says Sir Walter Scott, "had
something in it impressive on the imagination: the dresses and liveries,
and number of their attendants, their style of travelling, the imposing
and almost warlike air of the armed men who surrounded them, placed them
far above the laird who travelled with his brace of footmen; and as to
rivalry from the mercantile part of the community, these would as soon
have thought of imitating the state and equipage of the Sovereign. . . .
Two running footmen, dressed in white, with black jockey caps, and long
staves in their hands, headed the train; and such was their agility that
they found no difficulty in keeping the necessary advance which the
etiquette of their station required before the carriage and horsemen.
Onward they came at an easy swinging trot, arguing unwearied speed in
their long-breathed calling. Behind these glowing meteors, who footed it
as if the avenger of blood had been behind them, came a cloud of dust,
raised by riders who preceded, attended, or followed, the
state-carriage."

In times when persons of quality journeyed in this stately and sumptuous
fashion, it was often needful to mend the roads specially on their
account. The approach of a Royal Progress, or the Lord Lieutenant of the
county, was a signal for a general 'turn-out' of labourers and masons to
lay gravel over the most suspicious places, and to render the bridges at
least temporarily secure. Scarcely a Quarter sessions in the seventeenth
century passed over without presentments from the Grand Jury against
certain districts of the county; and few and favoured were the districts
which escaped a good round fine from the Judges, as a set-off against the
bruises and other damages which their Lordships sustained on their
circuit. It was no unusual accident for the Court to be kept waiting
many hours for the arrival of the Judge. Either his Lordship had been
dug out of a bog, or his official wardrobe had been carried away by a
bridgeless stream. Often, too, the patience of jurors was severely tried
by the non-appearance of counsel. These inconveniences became more
apparent after it had ceased to be the fashion for the Judges and the Bar
to travel on horseback from one assize-town to another. Cowper, writing
to his pedestria