Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1876-06-30

gency, have wisely preferred to
canonize Tony Weller and drive
coach. Forming four-in-hand club,
the more jealous members, owning
coaches and horses, have selected
various routes from London to some
neighboring village, a score of miles
or so away, and make daily, trip,
the member of the club himself tax
ing the part of Weller on the box.
There Is q booking-of6ce in 8 fashion
able street, where the passenger as
he takes his seat, may recall Mr..
Lowell in the opening OF the Asat5.
quarry, securing his place, and daily
the coach for DorkiDg, OF Maiden
head, or some other rural point, de-
parts and daily returns, conforming
to all the conditions of poetic tTsdi-
tion. In this pastine several New
Workers have taken degrees. Stage
coach driving in Englann by Ameri-
cans has not, indeed, been wholly an
known hitherto, but never before
have there been club and a system,
and for the first time the taste and
the practice have been transferred
to this country. This has been done
so effectively that the longer upon
'sthe Avenue" may now see all the
poetry Of stage-coaching, so far as an
arbitrary imitation can restore it.
A true English coach, with its
spaciOns outside accommodation,
whirls up to the door of the Hotel
Brunswick, at the southeastern cor
ner OF Filth Avenue and Twenty
sixth Street. 1t is an attractive
looking house, and its sunny southern
aspect is toward Madison Square.
The dining-room, on the lower floor,
and opening upon the square, recalls,
on a warm spring day, the pleasant
cafes of Paris in the early summer.
If the dinner is in harmony with
this general appearance and sugges-
tion-and of that the Easy Chair
Uherishes no doubt whatever, leaving
its readers to "settle" the matter for
themselyes-the Hotel Brunswick is
an exceedingly desirable place to
which to return after, gay excur-
sion into the country. Before the
coach has reined up at the door,
however, the sound of real horn,
blown by real English guard, has
been heard; and when the coach
stops, a coachman in a white box
coat, with top-Boots, and large
nosegay at his breast, throws down
donw the ''fibbons" which guide the
four horses, each with a nOsegay at
his left ear, and so leaps to the side
walk. This driver is a gentleman
of New York, Mr.. Delaney Kane,
who drives the coach daily to the
Marks of CRANKY, or, more accurate
", to the old Lorillard House, at
Pelham Bridge.
The gay company, whose names
have been booked long before, climb
to their seats The attentive gnard
sees that all is right. Then the &C
complished driver mounts the box,
takes the ribbons, or the lines, or
the lines, or the reins-as they are
yariously called by the spectators
the guard windsih his horn, the crowd
stares, the horses start, and up the
Avenue rolls the stage-coaeh, the
'busses drawing out of the way, and
all of the "town" that is on the street
looking on content. Swiftly through
the leafng and blossoming Park,
along the broad way beyond, over
the bridge, and out to the placid
fields of Westchester the team gal
lops and runs. Presently it is chang
ed. The geod-humored passengers,
excited by the novelty Of the cir
cumstanees and the beauty of the
landscape, enjoy the scene, familiar
yet strange, and in an hour and 3
half have reached their bourn, and
alight. Four hours with luncheon
swiftly pass. Then on with the
coach, let Joy be unconfned; and
galloping and running back again,
the coach dashe, up on time at the
Brunswick, and the clark" is ended.
Except, inded, that the passsngeEs
will otfofget to fee the driver aud
the guard, who both bow respectful
ly, and pocket the two shillings from
each one Of the company.
1t is as good a bit of poetic stage
coaching as could be had, and very
much pleasanter on pleasant day
than much of the real coaching in
the good old English times, when,
the strain and labor of six and some
times eight horses drew the carriage
through the mire. The passengers
were constantly out, upon q long
journey, two hours before day, and
after dark in tBe winte. ,aorAce
Walpole in 1859 describes the reads
near Tunbridge Wells, which were
so different from those in our Cen
tral Park that the young gentle
men were obliged to drive their cur
ricles with oxen. And ten years
later Lord HerYey writes from Ken
sington, suburb of London, that
the road is so "infamously bad" that
there is an impossible gulf of mud
between him andTtown, and he is as
solitary as if he were upon a rock in
the middle of the ocean. The word
that has dropped naturally from the
pen is the trne eomment.I The pref
ty excursion of to-day is,not real
coaching. 1t is delightful drive,
a pleasant play. But, then, how
much better to he alive and young
( in'IS7e, driving on the top of q light!
springing coach over perfect roads
and with jolly company, than to
have lived in l72s and to haue toiled
up to town with Mrs. Delany from
Gloucestershire, the coach breaking
down, and we obliged to get out and
take shelter-even Mrs. Delany-in
an ale-house, then jogging on again,
and about an hour later ''fop we
went into o slough, not overturned,
but stuckp There isno Topping and
sticking for the merry company that
depart from the Brunswick, stepping
with the Frightening season out oi
| the drawing-room into the fresh air
and finding upon the coach top
new zest in their pleasures as they