No; the guiding hands directed its course to the
left, down the brae, and along the over-familiar road to the station.
The old Clarence must have recognised with a sigh that its roaming
days were definitely over, and that henceforth, as long as its
creaking axles and stiffening springs held together, it could only
look forward to an uneventful life of monotonous routine in a cold,
grey Northern land; and, between ourselves, these feelings are not
confined to superannuated carriages.
The old Clarence had one splendid final adventure before it fell to
pieces from old age. At the 1892 Election I was the Unionist candidate
for North Tyrone. In the North of Ireland political lines of
demarcation are drawn sharply and definitely. People are either on one
side or the other. I was quite aware that to win the seat I should
have to poll every available vote. On the polling day I spent the
whole day in going round the constituency and was consequently away
from home. Late in the afternoon a messenger arrived at Baron's Court
announcing that an elderly farmer, who lived six miles off and had
lost the use of his legs, had been forgotten. As, owing to his
infirmity, he was unable to sit on a jaunting-car, it had been
arranged that a carriage should be sent for him, but this had not been
done.
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