



Produced by Charlene Taylor, Melissa McDaniel and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
(This file was produced from images generously made
available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)







Transcriber's Note:

  Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have
  been preserved.  Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.

  Italic text is denoted by _underscores_ and bold text by =equal
  signs=.

  Page 51:  "_Aa_leck not El-eck" might have a diacritical mark over
            the a.
  Page 63:  "I've 'earn tell" possibly should be "I've 'eard tell".
  Page 261:  The frontispiece cited was not included in this printing.
  Page 318:  "caller" possibly should be "calmer".
  Page 326:  "Frith" possibly should be "Firth".


      AN
      AMERICAN FOUR-IN-HAND
      IN BRITAIN

      BY
      ANDREW CARNEGIE

      NEW YORK
      CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
      1899.




      COPYRIGHT, 1883, 1886, BY
      CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS.

      Press of J. J. Little & Co.
      Astor Place, New York




      I DEDICATE THESE PAGES
      TO
      MY FAVORITE HEROINE,
      My Mother.




_PREFACE._


_The publication of this book renders necessary a few words of
explanation. It was originally printed for private circulation among a
few dear friends--those who were not as well as those who were of the
coaching party--to be treasured as a souvenir of happy days. The house
which has undertaken the responsibility of giving it a wider circulation
believed that its publication might give pleasure to some who would not
otherwise see it. It is not difficult to persuade one that his work
which has met with the approval of his immediate circle may be worthy of
a larger audience; and the author was the more easily induced to consent
to its reprint because, the first edition being exhausted, he was no
longer able to fill many requests for copies._

_The original intent of the book must be the excuse for the highly
personal nature of the narrative, which could scarcely be changed
without an entire remodelling, a task for which the writer had neither
time nor inclination; so, with the exception of a few suppressions and
some additions which seemed necessary under its new conditions, its
character has not been materially altered. Trusting that his readers may
derive from a perusal of its pages a tithe of the pleasure which the Gay
Charioteers experienced in performing the journey, and wishing that all
may live to see their "ships come home" and then enjoy a similar
excursion for themselves, he subscribes himself,_

      _Very Sincerely,_
      _THE AUTHOR_
      _New York, May 1, 1883._




      AN AMERICAN FOUR-IN-HAND
      IN BRITAIN.


Long enough ago to permit us to sing, "For we are boys, merry, merry
boys, Merry, merry boys together," and the world lay all before us where
to choose, Dod, Vandy, Harry, and I walked through Southern England with
knapsacks on our backs. What pranks we played! Those were the happy days
when we heard the chimes at midnight and laughed Sir Prudence out of
countenance. "Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be
no more cakes and ale?" Nay, verily, Sir Gray Beard, and ginger shall be
hot i' the mouth too! Then indeed

                  "The sounding cataract
      Haunted me like a passion; the tall rock,
      The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood,
      Their colors and their forms, were then to me
      An appetite; a feeling and a love
      That had no need of a remoter charm,
      By thought supplied, or any interest
      Unborrowed from the eye."

It was during this pedestrian excursion that I announced that some day,
when my "ships came home," I should drive a party of my dearest friends
from Brighton to Inverness. Black's "Adventures of a Phaeton" came not
long after this to prove that another Scot had divined how idyllic the
journey could be made. It was something of an air-castle--of a
dream--those far-off days, but see how it has come to pass!

  [Sidenote: _Air-Castles._]

The world, in my opinion, is all wrong on the subject of air-castles.
People are forever complaining that their chateaux en Espagne are never
realized. But the trouble is with them--they fail to recognize them when
they come. "To-day