trict must
have been the one referred to in a note by Mr. Henry Fordham, who says:
"I remember seeing an old pillion in my father's house which was used
by my mother, as I have been told, in her early married days." [Mr.
Henry Fordham's mother was a daughter of Mr. William Nash, a country
lawyer of some note.]

Some months ago the writer was startled by hearing, casually dropped by
an old man visiting a shop in Royston, the strange remark--"My
grandfather was chairman to the Marquis of Rockingham." The remark
seemed like the first glimpse of a rare old fossil when visiting an old
quarry. Of the truth of it further inquiry seemed to leave little
doubt, and the meaning of it was simply this: The Marquis of
Rockingham, Prime Minister in the early years of George III., would,
like the rest of the _beau monde_, be carried about town in his Sedan
chair, by smart velvet-coated livery men ["I have a piece of his livery
of green silk velvet by me now," said my informant, when further
questioned about his grandfather] preceded at night by the "link boy,"
or someone carrying a torch to light the way through the dark streets!
I have been unable to find any trace of the use of the Sedan Chair by
any of the residents of Royston, albeit that gifted but ill-fated
youth, John Smith, alias Charles Stuart, alias King Charles I., did,
with the {8} Duke of Buckingham, alias Thomas Smith, come back to his
royal father, King James I., at Royston, from that romantic Spanish
wooing expedition and bring with him a couple of Sedan Chairs, instead
of a Spanish bride!

The old stage wagons succeeding to the pack-horses, which carried goods
and occasionally passengers stowed away, were a curiosity. A
long-bodied wagon, with loose canvas tilt, wheels of great breadth, so
as to be independent of ruts, except the very broadest; with a series
of four or five iron tires or hoops round the feloes, and the whole
drawn by eight or ten horses, two abreast with a driver riding on a
pony with a long whip, which gave him command of the whole team!
Average pace about 1 1/2 to 2 miles an hour, including stoppages, as
taken from old time tallies, for their journeys! These ponderous
wagons, with their teams of eight horses and broad wheels, were
actually associated with the idea of "flying," for I find an
announcement in the year 1772, that the Stamford, Grantham, Newark and
Gainsboro' wagons began "flying" on Tuesday, March 24th, &c. Twenty
and thirty hor