y a gate, the dog
was commanded to open it; the poor cur looked up and wagged his tail: but
the master, to show the impatience of his temper, drew a pistol and shot
him dead. He had no sooner done it, but he fell into a thousand
apologies for his unhappy rashness, and begged as many pardons for his
excesses before one for whom he had so profound a respect. Soon after
their steed stumbled, but with some difficulty recovered; however, the
bridegroom took occasion to swear, if he frightened his wife so again, he
would run him through! And, alas! the poor animal, being now almost
tired, made a second trip; immediately on which the careful husband
alights, and with great ceremony first takes off his lady, then the
accoutrements, draws his sword, and saves the huntsman the trouble of
killing him: then says he to his wife, 'Child, prithee take up the
saddle;' which she readily did, and tugged it home, where they found all
things in the greatest order, suitable to their fortune and the present
occasion." This veracious history proceeds to say that, after this
practical lesson, the lady was ever remarkable for a sweet and compliant
temper.

Cotton's--"cheerful hearty Mr. Cotton"--description of a post-horse may
be less familiarly known to the reader than either of the preceding
descriptions of the inconveniences of riding post: it describes a journey
from the neighbourhood of Bakewell to Holyhead, about the year 1678.

"A guide I had got, who demanded great vails,
For conducting me over the mountains of Wales:
Twenty good shillings, which sure very large is;
Yet that would not serve, but I must bear his charges:
And yet for all that, rode astride on a beast,
The worst that e'er went on three legs, I protest.
It certainly was the most ugly of jades:
His hips and his rump made a right ace of spades;
His sides were two ladders, well spur-galled withal;
His neck was a helve, and his head was a mall;
For his colour, my pains and your trouble I'll spare,
For the creature was wholly denuded of hair,
And, except for two things, as bare as my nail,--
A tuft of a mane and a sprig of a tail.
Now such as the beast was, even such was the rider,
With head like a nutmeg, and legs like a spider;
A voice like a cricket, a look like a rat,
The brains of a goose, and the heart of a cat:
But now with our horses, what sound and what rotten,
Down to the shore, y