icles arrived; but how great
was their surprise and dismay, when in a short time every order
came, directed properly to the person who had given it! Coffins and
coffin-plates, silk shrouds and velvet palls, and all the expensive
paraphernalia of the charnel-house were to be seen carried about from
the waggon-office in Bolton, to be delivered at the residences of the
principal inhabitants. Many refused to receive these mementoes of their
terrestrial life, and others denied having ever ordered the same. Sable,
however, proved himself too _fast a trotter_ for the Bolton people; for
having, by the assistance of the waiter, obtained the true description
of his ~256~~customers on the night of the joke, and finding they were
most of them wealthy tradesmen, he very wisely determined to humour the
whim, and execute the orders given, and in due course of time insisted
upon payment for the same. Thus ended the story of the Bolton trotters,
which our merry companion concluded, by observing, that it put an end
to sporting, in that way, for some time; and by the chagrin it caused to
many of the trottees, distanced them in this life, and sent them off
the course in a galloping consumption.{1} "There's honour for you," said
Sable, "civilized a

1 _A Bolton definition_.--When the Bolton Canal was first
pro-posed, the Athenians (for that Bolton is the Athens of
Lancashire no one can doubt) could not well understand how
boats were to be raised above the level of the sea. A lock
to them was as incom-prehensible as Locke on the Human
Understanding. A celebrated member of a celebrated trotting
club was amongst the number of those who could not
comprehend the mystery. Unwilling to appear ignorant upon a
question which formed the common topic of conversation, he
applied to a scientific gentleman in the neighbourhood for
an accurate description of a lock. It happened that the man
of science had on one occasion been a _trottee_, and was
glad to have an opportunity of retaliation. "A lock," said
he, "is a quantity of sawdust congealed into boards, which,
being let down into the water in a perpendicular slope-
level, raises it to the declivity of the sea above!"--" Eh?"
said the Athenian, "what dun yo' say?" The gentleman
repeated his description, and the worthy Boltonian recorded
every word in the tablet of his memory. Sometime afterwards
he had