ishing the modest wish
cf the Amatus and Amata of the Peri Bathous,--

"Ye gods, annihilate but time and space,
And make two lovers happy."

I intend to give Mr. P. his full revenge when I come to discuss the more
recent enormity of steamboats; meanwhile, I shall only say of both these
modes of conveyance, that--

"There is no living with them or without them."

I am, perhaps, more critical on the--mail-coach on this particular
occasion, that I did not meet all the respect from the worshipful
company in his Majesty's carriage that I think I was entitled to. I must
say it for myself that I bear, in my own opinion at least, not a vulgar
point about me. My face has seen service, but there is still a good set
of teeth, an aquiline nose, and a quick, grey eye, set a little too deep
under the eyebrow; and a cue of the kind once called military may serve
to show that my civil occupations have been sometimes mixed with those
of war. Nevertheless, two idle young fellows in the vehicle, or rather
on the top of it, were so much amused with the deliberation which I used
in ascending to the same place of eminence, that I thought I should have
been obliged to pull them up a little. And I was in no good-humour at
an unsuppressed laugh following my descent when set down at the angle,
where a cross road, striking off from the main one, led me towards
Glentanner, from which I was still nearly five miles distant.

It was an old-fashioned road, which, preferring ascents to sloughs, was
led in a straight line over height and hollow, through moor and dale.
Every object around me; as I passed them in succession, reminded me of
old days, and at the same time formed the strongest contrast with them
possible. Unattended, on foot, with a small bundle in my hand, deemed
scarce sufficient good company for the two shabby-genteels with whom I
had been lately perched on the top of a mail-coach, I did not seem to be
the same person with the young prodigal, who lived with the noblest and
gayest in the land, and who, thirty years before, would, in the same
country, have, been on the back of a horse that had been victor for a
plate, or smoking aloof in his travelling chaise-and-four. My sentiments
were not less changed than my condition. I could quite well remember
that my ruling sensation in the days of heady youth was a mere
schoolboy's eagerness to get farthest forward in the race in which I had
engaged; to drink as many bottles as --; to b