80. The Coach-stand.
Nothing can exceed the noise, bustle, and hurry, of the streets of London, where carriages are passing backward and forward during the whole day, and most of the night. Carts are creaking under heavy loads of merchandise, mail-coaches are driving to and from the post-office with the letter-bags, and more than a thousand hackney-coaches and chariots are sometimes in motion at once on a rainy day. These are a great convenience in London; for, to whatever part of the town you may wish to go, you have only to beckon to a coachman, and
He’ll drive you home quickly, and when you are there,
You have nothing to do but to pay him his fare.
That gentleman and lady have called to a coachman to take them home; and the waterman, who attends on hackney-coaches and their employers, seems to be enquiring where they are going. We would recommend every person who hires a hackney coach in London, to notice what number is on the door, which, on many occasions, has been found very useful.
I am an old coachman, and drive a good hack,
With a coat of five capes that quite covers my back;
And my wife keeps a sausage-shop, not many miles
From the narrowest alley in all broad St. Giles’.What tho’ at a tavern my gentleman tarries,
Why, the coachman grows richer than he whom he carries;
And I’d rather, says I, since it keeps me from sin,
Be the driver without, than the toper within.And tho’ I’m a coachman, I freely confess,
I beg of my Maker my labours to bless;
I praise him each morning, and pray ev’ry night,
And ’tis this makes my heart feel so cheerful and light.
81. New Milk from the Cow.
That lady and her children, who have gone from Cheapside to Islington, may fancy themselves at a farm in the country; the fields look so green, the fresh air is so reviving, and the warm milk so delightfully sweet. Let us hope they will all receive some benefit from their morning excursion; for a walk, and a draught of new milk, must contribute greatly to the health of children who are confined for the rest of the day in a crowded city. The old gentleman on the bench seems also to have had his draught, and is contemplating the fine shape of the gentle cow.