Page:The life and opinions of Tristram Shandy (Volume 2).pdf/69

 the broadest part of him sunk about twelve inches deep in the mire.

Obadiah pull'd off his cap twice to Dr. Slop;—once as he was falling,—and then again when he saw him seated.—Ill-timed complaisance!—had not the fellow better have stopp'd his horse, and got off and help'd him?—Sir, he did all that his situation would allow;—but the of the coach-horse was so great, that Obadiah could not do it all at once;—he rode in a circle three times round Dr. Slop, before he could fully accomplish it any how;—and at the last, when he did stop his beast, 'twas done with such an explosion of mud, that Obadiah had better have been a league off. In short, never was a Dr. Slop so beluted, and so transubstantiated, since that affair came into fashion.