(BY MR. ROBERT NAYLOR)
We retraced our steps to the "First and Last House in England," where we
found our driver waiting for us with his conveyance, which we had now
time to examine, and found to be a light, rickety, two-wheeled cart of
ancient but durable construction, intended more for use than ornament,
and equivalent to the more northern shandrydan or shandry. The strong
board which formed the seat was placed across the conveyance from one
side to the other a few inches below the top-rail, and would slide to
any point required between the front and back of the trap, the weight of
the driver or other passengers holding it in its place. It would only
hold three persons, including the driver. The first difficulty that
presented itself, however, was the fact that we were not sufficiently
provided with warm clothing to face the twelve-mile drive to Penzance in
the cold night air; but, fortunately, our friend had an overcoat which
had been brought out by the driver; so after a short consultation we
arranged that I should sit between the driver and our friend, a
comparatively warm position, while my brother sat on the floor of the
conveyance, where there was a plentiful supply of clean dry straw, with
his face towards the horse and his back supported by the backboard of
the trap, where our presence on the seat above him would act as a screen
from the wind.
After arranging ourselves as comfortably as possible in our rather novel
positions, with which we were rather pleased than otherwise, we
proceeded on our way at a brisk speed, for our horse was quite fresh and
showed no disposition to loiter on the road, since like ourselves he was
on his way home.
Lighting regulations for vehicles were not in force in those days, and
conveyances such as ours carried no lights even on the darkest night;
but with a total absence of trees, and lighted by the first quarter of
the new moon, we expected to reach Penzance before the night became
really dark.
The conversation as we passed into the open country was carried on by
the three of us in front, as my brother could not join in it owing to
his position; and we had just turned towards him with the jocular
remark, "How are you getting on down there?" and had received his reply,
"All right!" when, with scarcely a moment's warning, we met with an
accident which might have killed him and seriously injured ourselves. We
suddenly crashed into a heavy waggon drawn by two horses, the first
wheel of the waggon striking dead against ours. The force of the
collision caused our seat to slide backwards against my brother,
pinning him against the backboard of the cart, but, fortunately for him,
our driver, who had retained his hold on his reins, jumped up at the
same moment and relieved the pressure, so that he had only the weight of
two men against him instead of three.
Meantime all was confusion, and it was a case of every one for himself;
but the only man who was equal to the occasion was our driver, who with
one hand pulled his horse backwards almost as quickly as the other
horses came forward, and with his whip in the other hand slashed
furiously at the face of the waggoner, who was seated on the wide board
in front of his waggon fast asleep and, as it afterwards appeared, in a
state of intoxication.
Our conveyance was on its proper side of the road and quite near the
fence, so that our friend jumped out of it on the land above, quickly
followed by myself, and, rapidly regaining the road, we ran towards the
horses attached to the waggon and stopped them.
A tremendous row now followed between the waggoner, who was a powerfully
built man, and our driver, and the war of words seemed likely to lead to
blows; but my brother, whom in the excitement of the moment we had quite
forgotten, now appeared upon the scene in rather a dazed condition, and,
hearing the altercation going on, advanced within striking distance of
the waggoner. I could see by the way he held his cudgel that he meant
mischief if the course of events had rendered it necessary, but the
blood on the waggoner's face showed he had been severely punished
already.
Seeing that he was hopelessly outnumbered, the waggoner, who was almost
too drunk to understand what had happened, became a little quieter and
gave us his name, and we copied the name of the miller who employed him
from the name-plate on the waggon, giving similar information to the
driver concerning ourselves; but as we heard nothing further about the
matter, we concluded the case was settled out of court.
We all congratulated my brother on his almost providential escape from
what might have been a tragic ending to his long walk. He had told me he
had a foreboding earlier in the evening that something was about to
happen to him. From the position in which he was seated in the bottom of
the trap he could not see anything before him except the backs of the
three men sitting above, and he did not know what was happening until he
thought he saw us tumbling upon him and myself jumping in the air over a
bush.
He described it in the well-known words of Sir Walter Scott:
The heart had hardly time to think.
The eyelid scarce had time to wink.
The squeeze, as he called it, had left its marks upon him, as his chest
was bruised in several places, and he was quite certain that if we had
slid backwards another half-inch on our seat in the trap we should have
finished him off altogether--for the back of the trap had already been
forced outwards as far as it would go. He felt the effects of the
accident for a long time afterwards.
We complimented our driver on his wonderful presence of mind and on the
way he had handled his horse under the dangerous conditions which had
prevailed. But we must needs find the smithy, for we dared not attempt
to ride in our conveyance until it had been examined. The wheel had been
rather seriously damaged, and other parts as well, but after some slight
repairs it was so patched up as to enable us to resume our journey, with
a caution from the blacksmith to drive slowly and with great care.
We arrived at Penzance safely, but much later than we had expected, and
after paying our driver's fee together with a handsome donation, we
adjourned with our friend to the hotel for a substantial dinner and to
talk about our adventure until bedtime. When bidding us "good night,"
our friend informed us that, as he had an engagement in the country some
miles away, we should not see him on the next day, but he promised to
visit us after his return to Liverpool. This he did, and we saw him on
several occasions in after years when, owing to unforeseen
circumstances, we found ourselves, like him, in the timber trade.
_Sunday, November 19th._
Sir Matthew Hale was a member of Cromwell's Parliament and Lord Chief
Justice of England in 1671. His "Golden Maxim" is famous:
A Sabbath well spent brings a week of content,
And health for the toils of to-morrow;
But a Sabbath profaned, whate'er may be gained,
Is a certain forerunner of sorrow!
Anxious as we were to reach our home as soon as possible, our knowledge
of Sir Matthew's maxim and of the Commandment "_Remember_ that thou keep
holy the Sabbath Day," prevented us from travelling on Sunday.
Penzance is said to have a temperature cooler in summer and warmer in
winter than any other town in Britain, and plants such as dracænas,
aloes, escollonia, fuchsias, and hydrangeas, grown under glass in winter
elsewhere, flourished here in the open air, while palms or tree ferns
grow to a wonderful height, quite impossible under similar conditions in
our more northern latitude, where they would certainly be cut down by
frost. We also noted that the forest trees were still fairly covered
with autumnal leaves, but when we arrived home two days later similar
trees were quite bare.
After a short walk we returned to the hotel for breakfast, over which we
discussed the disappearance of our friend of yesterday, wondering what
the business could be that had occupied his time for a whole week in the
neighbourhood of Penzance, and why he should have an engagement on the
Sunday "some miles in the country," when we could have done so well with
his company ourselves. But as there seemed to be some mystery about his
movements, we came to the conclusion that there must be a lady in the
case, and so, as far as we were concerned, the matter ended.
We attended morning service in accordance with our usual custom, and
listened to a sermon from a clergyman who took for his text the whole of
the last chapter in the Book of Ecclesiastes, with special emphasis on
the first word: