Related article: coaches nobody would be venture- some enough to ride on any of them, yet in the old days pas- sengers took but little notice of those which did not result in loss of life Ranitidine Online or serious injury to limb, while they took being blocked up by a snowstorm as one of the ordinary matters of winter life. We who in corridor carriages travel to-day clad in ulsters, with warm railway - rugs around us, and with hot tins or steam-pipes in the carriage, can scarcely realise the miseries of coach travelling in winter, while none of us, perhaps, can realise the hardships brought about by the awful snowstorm which began slightly two days before Christmas Day, 1S36. The day was Sunday, and the people returning from evenitf church had in most parts of Eng- land experienced no little difficulty in reaching their homes, while in Ranitidine Buy the southern parts of England the tempest raged for five days and nights. On the Brighton road the storm was exceedingly severe- Goodman's Times, which Jefr Brighton on Christmas Day, was the first coach to feel the ill effects of the tempest; but he reached town. The sentries at the Pavi- lion were covered with snow is their boxes, and by eleven o'clock 1*99.] ROBERT ABEL. 451 the few flymen who ventured out were compelled to utilise two and three horses. " Some of the streets," wrote an eye-witness, •' were completely blocked up by snow and totally impassable; in others where the snow drifted, high ridges were formed at the side of the road from one end of the street to the other which were, in most places, four or five feet deep. Hundreds of persons had to dig their way out of doors ; large masses of snow covered the tops of Order Ranitidine the houses, Buy Ranitidine and where the drift was greatest the windows were completely covered, present- ing a most singular appearance. In Gloucester Lane the snow was Cheap Ranitidine eight or ten feet deep. Tracks were soon made on the pavements, and it was a curious sight in some places to see persons walking be- tween the houses and these ridges, their heads just peeping above the snow." The effect of such a storm on the roads can be faintly imagined. All the Brighton coaches and mails were stuck fast, and the mail from Gloucester could only be dragged along by the united exertions of no fewer than eighteen sturdy cart-horses. Of snowstorms both the Duke of Beaufort and Mr. Colpitts could tell a good deal, and on the high-lying lands in the north the Order Ranitidine Online cold was more intense than in the south. Of what happened to coaches in bad weather sixty years ago there are not now living many to tell us. Here and there one reads of an octogenarian coachman turning up, but with the exception of Mr. Charles Ward, now well over eighty years of age, there is pro- bably not one of the better known coachmen of the West and Brighton roads to give their reminiscences. W. C. A. B. Robert Abel. The portrait which adorns the title page of this volume is that of the well known and deservedly popular little cricketer, Robert Abel, who has now for so many years done such good work for his county, Surrey. Born in 1859, " The Guv'nor " — to call him by the endearing soubriquet which was long ago bestowed upon him by the admiring crowd at Ken- nington Oval— has Purchase Ranitidine Online been before the public for some fifteen years, and by his consistent scoring has gene- rally been within comfortable distance of the top of the first class batting averages. For a man of his inches — Abel is one of the smallest of first class cricketers — his scoring abilities are exceptional and, gifted as he is with a rare stock of patience, and what is perhaps the most valuable gift of all for a batsman, good luck, Abel is a man whose back is always a welcome sight to the opposing bowlers. Nor indeed is his value to his side limited to his innings, for as a slow bowler he Buy Ranitidine Online has frequently taken wickets when bowlers of greater renown have failed, and although his deliveries look harmless enough, he has generally secured a fair crop of wickets by the time that the season is over, and the aver- ages are made up. In his early days he gained a reputation as a field at short slip, but of later years he has gone farther afield, and wherever he be he misses very few Buy Cheap Ranitidine catches and is always safe. It was but natural that such a 452 BAILY S MAGAZINE. fJlXE good cricketer should be invited to go to Australia, the first occa- sion being with the team organised by Mr. G. F. Vernon in 1887-8, when, in addition to his cricket triumphs, he is credited with having shot a bear. When Lord Sheffield took his team to Aus- tralia under the captaincy of the one and only " W. G.," Abel formed one of the party, and Purchase Ranitidine here for a moment we are content to pause and to listen to George Giffen, at that time the champion cricketer of Australia, and to hear what he says of Abel's play in the test match at Sydney. " England responded to our score of 145 with 307. Almost entirely to one man was Generic Ranitidine a score of that magnitude due, and that one was Bobby Abel, who carried his bat through the innings, the only occasion, I believe on which it has been done for England in a test match. His contribution was 132 ; the next score to his was 28 ! It was a perfect display, as fine a one as I have seen him give ; without taking the slightest risk, he met all the bowling with provoking confidence and made some beauti- ful strokes." Praise from George Giffen is praise indeed, and we need attempt to utter no further word of commendation of Bobby Abel. In search of further colonial cricket he was one of the first team which visited South Africa when the gold boom was at its