Pimperne, Dorset.
Boswell's "Johnson."—In vol. v. p. 272. of my favourite edition, and p. 784. of the edition in one volume, Johnson, writing to Brocklesby, under date Sept. 2, 1784, calls Windham "inter stellas Luna minores." Boswell, in a note, says, "It is remarkable that so good a Latin scholar as Johnson should have been so inattentive to the metre, as by mistake to have written stellas instead of ignes." Now, with all due deference, a Captain of Native Infantry ventures to suggest that both stellas and ignes are wrong, and that Johnson was thinking of the noble opening of Horace's 15th Epode:
"Nox erat, et cœlo fulgebat Luna sereno,
Inter minora sidera."
F. C.
Bangalore.
Stage Coaches.—It occurs to me as highly desirable that, before the recollection of the old stage coach has faded from the memory of all but the oldest inhabitant, an authentic statement should be placed on record of the length of the stages, and the speed that was obtained, by this mode of conveyance, in which England was for so many years without a rival.
The speed of mail coaches is, I believe chronicled in the British Almanac of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge; but their speed, if I mistake not, was surpassed by that of the "Rival," which travelled (from Monmouth, I think) to London after the opening of the Great Western Railway.
Could any of your correspondents favour us with the time-bill of that coach, detailing the length of the several stages, and the time of performance? It would also be interesting to chronicle the period during which this rivalry with the railway was maintained.
Geo. E. Frere.