"Now pray step in!" my ladye saith,
"Now prithee come to me."
She takes the baby from the crib,
She sits it on her knee.
"Now pray step in!" my ladye saith,
"Now pray step in and ride."
Then deadly pale, in waving veil,
She takes to her the bride.
"Now pray step in!" my ladye saith,
"There's room I wot for you."
She wav'd her hand, the coach did stand,
The Squire within she drew.
"Now pray step in!" my ladye saith,
"Why shouldst thou trudge afoot?"
She took the gaffer in by her,
His crutches in the boot.
I'd rather walk a hundred miles,
And run by night and day,
Than have that carriage halt for me
And hear my ladye say—
"Now pray step in, and make no din,
Step in with me to ride;
There's room, I trow, by me for you,
And all the world beside."
As a fact, Lady Howard did not have a carriage but a Sedan-chair. An inventory of her goods was taken at her death for probate, and this shows that she had no wheeled conveyance. The story of the Death Coach is probably a vague reminiscence of the Goddess of Death travelling over the world collecting human souls.
The authorities for the Life of Lady Howard are:—
Lord Lansdowne's Vindication of Sir Richard Grenville, printed in Holland, 1654, reprinted in Lord Lansdowne's Works, 1732; also Clarendon's History of the Great Rebellion, and Mrs. G. Radford's "Lady Howard, of Fitzford," in the Transactions of the Devonshire Association, 1890.
