ere inclined for dinner, and could pay for it.
He derived his sobriquet of 'The bang-up coachman' partly from his being
dressed in the extremity of coach dandyism, and partly from the peculiar
insolence of his manner, and the unmerciful fashion in which he was in
the habit of lashing on the poor horses committed to his charge. He was
a large tall fellow, of about thirty, with a face which, had it not been
bloated by excess, and insolence and cruelty stamped most visibly upon
it, might have been called good-looking. His insolence, indeed, was so
great that he was hated by all the minor fry connected with coaches along
the road upon which he drove, especially the ostlers, whom he was
continually abusing or finding fault with. Many was the hearty curse
which he received when his back was turned; but the generality of people
were much afraid of him, for he was a swinging strong fellow, and had the
reputation of being a fighter, and in one or two instances had beaten in
a barbarous manner individuals who had quarrelled with him.

I was nearly having a fracas with this worthy. One day, after he had
been drinking sherry with a sprig, he swaggered into the yard where I
happened to be standing; just then a waiter came by carrying upon a tray
part of a splendid Cheshire cheese, with a knife, plate, and napkin.
Stopping the waiter, the coachman cut with the knife a tolerably large
lump out of the very middle of the cheese, stuck it on the end of the
knife, and putting it to his mouth, nibbled a slight piece off it, and
then, tossing the rest away with disdain, flung the knife down upon the
tray, motioning the waiter to proceed. 'I wish,' said I, 'you may not
want before you die what you have just flung away,' whereupon the fellow
turned furiously towards me; just then, however, his coach being standing
at the door, there was a cry for coachman, so that he was forced to
depart, contenting himself for the present with shaking his fist at me,
and threatening to serve me out on the first opportunity; before,
however, the opportunity occurred he himself got served out in a most
unexpected manner.

The day after this incident he drove his coach to the inn, and after
having dismounted and received the contributions of the generality of the
passengers, he strutted up, with a cigar in his mouth, to an individual
who had come with him, and who had just asked me a question with respect
to the direction of a village about three miles off