You will oblige me by inserting the following in your paper, which may
be amusing to some of your readers:--
It is a fact well known that when the subscription coaches started,
in the year 1812, William Hanning, Esq., a magistrate of the county
of Somerset, residing near Ilminster, was a strenuous advocate for
their support, and it was in great measure owing to his exertions
that they were established. This gentleman, from some motive or
other, or perhaps from his known fondness for new speculations, is
now the avowed supporter of a new coach, called, above all other
names, the "Defiance," and it is professedly meant as an opposition
to the subscription coaches. It started from Exeter for the first
time on Sunday, April 13th, 1823. One really would have supposed
that under such patronage a name better calculated to keep the
peace of his Majesty's liege subjects, and to preserve harmony and
good-will among men, would have been adopted for this coach, and
that some other day might have been selected for its first
appearance. However, the "Defiance" started on the Sunday
afternoon, amidst the shouts and imprecations of guards, coachmen,
and ostlers, contending one against the other, and having one
ill-looking outside passenger, whose name was _Revenge_.
An interesting occurrence took place at Ilminster. The new
"Defiance" was expected to arrive there, on its way from town,
between nine and ten on the Sunday morning, and it was determined
to honour it with ringing the church bells. The heroes of the
belfry were all assembled, every man at his rope's end, "their
souls on fire, and eager for the fray;" the Squire was stationed
about a mile from Ilminster, and seeing the coach, as he thought,
coming at a distance, he galloped through the street in triumph,
gave the signal, and off went the merry peal. Every eye was soon
directed to this new and delightful object, when, guess the
consternation that prevailed upon seeing, instead of the _new_
"Defiance," the poor _old_ Subscription trotting nimbly up to the
George Inn door, and Tom Goodman, the guard, playing on the
key-bugle, with his usual excellence, "Should auld acquaintance be
forgot?" The scene is more easily imagined than described; it would
have been a fine subject for Hogarth. The bells were now ordered to
cease; the Squire walked off and was seen no more. Honest Tom was
not accustomed to this kind of reception; he had enlivened the town
with his merry notes a thousand times, but now every one looked on
him with disdain, as if they did not know him. He could scarcely
suppress his feelings; but after a few minutes' reflection he
mounted his seat again, and, casting a good-tempered look to all
around him, went off, playing a tune which the occurrence and the
sublimity of the day seemed to dictate to him--"Through all the
changing scenes of life." Some of the good people of Ilminster who
were going to church admired Tom's behaviour, and said it had a
very good effect. Tom arrived safe with his coach at Exeter about
one o'clock, having started from London one hour and a half after
the "Defiance," and performed the journey in nineteen hours and a
half. The "Defiance" arrived about an hour after the Subscription;
but the proprietors of the latter did not approve of this system,
and gave Tom a reprimand, directing him in future to keep on his
regular steady pace,[21-*] and not to notice the other coach, which
he promised to attend to, but said he only wished to show them, on
their first journey, the way along. This, under all the
circumstances, was admitted as an excuse. Tom went away much
pleased with the adventures of his journey, and said he should
never meet the Squire again without playing on his bugle "Hark to
the merry Christ Church bells."
I beg leave to remain, Mr. Editor,
Your obliged Servant,
A FRIEND TO THE SUBSCRIPTION COACHES.