Martin's le Grand--the
fiftieth milestone is just beyond the turning--you will see a hand-
post with three arms on it; on one is written in large letters, "To
LONDON;" on the second, in equally large letters, "To YORK;" and on
the third, in small italic letters, "To Cowfold." Two or three years
before the events narrated in the following chapters took place--that
is to say, about twenty years after the death of Zachariah's second
wife--a hundred coaches a day rolled past that hand-post, and about
two miles beyond it was a huge inn, with stables like cavalry
barracks, where horses were changed. No coach went through Cowfold.
When the inhabitants wished to go northwards or southwards they
walked or drove to the junction, and waited on the little grassy
triangle till a coach came by which had room for them. When they
returned they were deposited at the same spot, and the passengers who
were going through from London to York or Scotland, or who were
coming up to London, always seemed to despise people who were taken
up or who were left by the roadside there.
There was, perhaps, some reason for this contempt. The North Road
was at that time one of the finest roads in the world, broad, hard-
metalled, and sound in the wettest weather.
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