posing interests, and the consequent feelings of jealous rivalry; in which respect, the greater part of the inhabitants of Thaxted, "a little more than kin and less than kind," offered no exception to the general rule. Towards the end of the village the road branched off in two directions round a little green, furnished with a finger-post, of which, according to the laudable practice of semi-barbarous England, one of the boards was broken off, and the other rendered totally illegible; while a milestone on the opposite side of the road was equally unservice'able, from its figures having been carefully punched out and obliterated. In front of the green stood the stocks, the neglected state of which attested either the orderly habits of the villagers, or the remissness of the constable; and behind this crumbling machine was a pool of muddy water, termed the horse-pond, on the poached margin of which might usually be seen six or eight ducks, performing their toilet with busy beak, and now and then detaching a feather from their plumage, which was lazily wafted by the wind to join those that fringed the opposite bank.

8

Our history commences on a Sunday, on the afternoon of which the villagers of Thaxted, who, like most other Sabbath idlers of humble life, often found the unemployed hours hang rather heavy upon their hands, were divided into two knots, one of which, including most of the women and old men, went, to attend the funeral of old Isaac, one of their own body, canvassing his age, which was a matter of some doubt, and the little property he had left behind him, which seemed to be involved in equal uncertainty; while the other party, embracing the younger portion of the rustic community, betook themselves to the George Inn, to await the arrival of the London coach, which generally passed through about this hour. Nothing could more strongly mark the vacuity of the day, and the listlessness of the assemblage, than the lounging, lazy interest with which they awaited the appearance of the well-known vehicle, though they expected not that it should bring them any thing new, and they had repeatedly collected upon previous Sundays, at the same spot, at the same hour, to witness the driving up of the same coach, which, as

it did not change horses at Thaxted, seldom stopped more than three or four minutes at the George. At length it came in sight, passed under the arch of trees to which we have already alluded, blessed the eyes of such dwellers in the High-street as were drawn to the windows by the sound of the horn, and finally drew up at the George, when the spectators, who had been waiting so long for the information, were enabled to ascertain once more, that it was driven by Ned Davis as usual, was drawn by the four customary horses, and conveyed no passenger, either inside or out, whose appearance was calculated to excite the least attention. Fortunately, however, for the gazers, something new was at last discovered, which effectually prevented their dispersion. A portion of the iron binding, or tyre, had been detached from one of the wheels, and the coach could not safely proceed until it had been replaced. A board upon the

very next house but one announced that its occupant was "John Stubbs, Horse-farrier, Bullock-leech, and Blacksmith;" but it was Sunday, the shop was shut up, and the rustic Vulcan was not at home; though several voices

simultaneously declared that he would be sure to be found down at the Cricketers.

The driver, as is usual with English coachmen upon every emergency, cursed and swore very heartily at the coach-cleaner, whose business it was to have examined the wheels; the wielder of the whip being now-a-days much too important a personage to attend to any department of his own vehicle, beyond the driving it. The gaping rustics busied themselves in conjectures as to where, when, and how the accident had happened; until one of their body, a little shrewder than his companions, suggested that the truant iron must be somewhere; (a proposition which met with a ready assent and repetition from the others,) and that it might be advisable to dispatch a boy in search of it. This advice was taken by the coachman, though not until he had declared that any fool could have thought of that expedient; and lest he should be anticipated in his farther measures by some other of the bystanders, he immediately sent a second lad in quest of Stubbs the blacksmith, and himself called lustily for Sam, the ostler of the George; asking his opinion, when he appeared,

whether the wheel would go safely as far as the Mermaid, in case they could not find the missing iron.

"Ah, Master Davis," said Sam, patting and examining one of the horses, without even casting a glance upon the wheel; "so you've put old Greyhound on the off-side, have you? He'll go anywhere now; but I remember when nobody couldn't drive he nohow, without it was strait-haired Jack. Out-and-out, he was the most unrestless beast as ever I came nigh, all to nothing."

"D-n your chuckle-head!" cried the irritated coachman; "never mind old Greyhound, but look at the wheel. What d'ye think of her? Will she run on as far as the Mermaid ?"

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What, black Bess! are you there?" continued Sam, tickling one of the leaders in the flank: "Ay, I've rode she many a hundred mile when she were a poster; and I thought I had pretty well seen the end of her; but a horse with good bottom will do ye a deal of coach-work still, when the boy is taken off her shoulders."

A fresh volley of oaths from the coachman