But it now
strikes half-past one, and of course it is time for me to be at the
stage. Farewell! I will write to you again from Richmond.
CHAPTER VIII.
Richmond, 21st June, 1782.
Yesterday afternoon I had the luxury for the first time of being
driven in an English stage. These coaches are, at least in the eyes
of a foreigner, quite elegant, lined in the inside; and with two
seats large enough to accommodate six persons; but it must be owned,
when the carriage is full, the company are rather crowded.
At the White Hart from whence the coach sets out, there was, at
first only an elderly lady who got in; but as we drove along, it was
soon filled, and mostly by ladies, there being only one more
gentleman and myself. The conversation of the ladies among
themselves, who appeared to be a little acquainted with each other,
seemed to me to be but very insipid and tiresome. All I could do
was, I drew out my book of the roads, and marked the way we were
going.
Before you well know that you are out of London you are already in
Kensington and Hammersmith; because there are all the way houses on
both sides, after you are out of the city; just as you may remember
the case is with us when you drive from Berlin to Schoneberg;
although in point of prospect, houses and streets, the difference,
no doubt, is prodigious.
It was a fine day, and there were various delightful prospects on
both sides, on which the eye would willingly have dwelt longer, had
not our coach rolled on past them, so provokingly quick. It
appeared somewhat singular to me, when at a few miles from London, I
saw at a distance a beautiful white house; and perceived on the high
road, on which we were driving, a direction post, on which were
written these words: "that great white house at a distance is a
boarding-school!"
The man who was with us in the coach pointed out to us the country
seats of the lords and great people by which we passed; and
entertained us with all kind of stories of robberies which had been
committed on travellers, hereabouts; so that the ladies at last
began to be rather afraid; on which he began to stand up for the
superior honour of the English robbers, when compared with the
French: the former he said robbed only, the latter both robbed and
murdered.
Notwithstanding this there are in England another species of
villains, who also murder, and that oftentimes for the merest
trifle, of which they rob the person murdered.
