Tugs
Stout loops of leather, depending from period "before the costly coach and silken stock came in." It is, however, very difficult to find any authoritative accounts of the introduction of that which ultimately became both a sport and a business. In 1601, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, an Act was passed "to prevent the effeminacy of men riding in coaches," but it was repealed in 1625, and in the reign of James I. the use of carriages became so fashionable that another Bill was introduced "to restrain the excessive use of coaches." The introduction of carriages naturally had the result of creating a demand for horses of a lighter and quicker type than the clumsy [H. Alken TRAVEL BY COACH IN OLDEN DAYS. SUMMER. the saddle pad, through which the shafts are inserted. Also called shaft tugs or shaft loops. Under carriage. That part of the coach which supports the body.
Unicorn team. - [See PICKAXE TEAM.] Wheelers. The two horses attached directly to the coach, and next to the driver.
Winkers.-[See BLINKERS.] PRIVATE AND STAGE COACHING. -The pastime of four-in-hand driving, dealt with incidentally in the preceding article, opens up a wide and interesting field on the subject of coaching past and present, amateur and professional.
Coaches, says Stow in his Chronicle, were introduced into England by Fitzalan Earl of Arundel in the year 1580, and in the "Poliolbion" of Drayton, written in 1613, reference is made to the and ponderous animals in use theretofore.
In the far-away days, when the commencement, at the London end of what is known as the New North Road, was the ancient bridleway leading into and out of London, called Hagbush Lane, from the haugh or haw bushes which marked the narrow track from four to eight feet in width, of course people did not travel in carriages or carts or wheeled vehicles of any kind, but rode on horseback, and conveyed their merchandise from place to place in pack saddles packages strapped on the backs of their horses. Roads were the subject of legislation as early as 1346. Some of these bridle tracks, in place of being grass-grown, were subsequently "metalled," as we now call it, in certain sections where the traffic was or heaviest and most frequent, and thus was gradually formed our great main and arterial system of internal highways which also had for their base in many parts of the country the old roads of the Romans. The state of the roads in some districts may be gathered from one of the letters of Dr. John Burton, in which he inquires why it is that the oxen, the swine, the women, and all other animals are so long-legged in Sussex.
Answering his first question by another, he suggests: "May it not be from the difficulty of pulling the feet out of so much mud [Photo. by Elliott and Fry.
THE PRESIDENT OF THE FOUR-IN-HAND CLUB (LORD ANCASTER) by the strength of the ankle that the muscles get stretched, as it were, and the bones lengthened?"
In the early days of stage coaching as a business, not only were the roads so bad as to be almost impassable in places in winter time, but the coaches themselves, which were heavy, lumbering vehicles, were horsed with coarse, under-bred animals, and were driven by men of inferior type, who, in not a few cases, were shrewdly suspected of being in league with the "knights of the road." For a long time the boxes of the stage coaches were built on the beds of the axle-trees, and even after great improvements had been introduced in the art and craft of coach building, the stage-coach proprietors would not sanction any departure from the old system, on the ground that if the boxes were set on springs, the [DRIVING coachmen would be always asleep. Springs were first patented by one Obadiah Elliott in the year 1804. Inasmuch as the teams were run in twenty-mile stages on roads such as have been described, it is not surprising to learn that travelling was slow and painful to the passengers as well as the horses, that over one part of the route between London and Oxford it took ten hours to cover twenty-seven miles, and that towards the end of this and many another similar journey, the application of ordinary whipcord to the jaded teams being futile, recourse was had to an instrument of torture known as the "'prentice," which was carried in the boot, and, in case of need, was brought out and used to flog the wheelers in the most merciless fashion. It was no unusual thing, under cover of the darkness, actually to run glandered horses in some of the night coaches, and many of the horse-keepers contracted the disease and died the most painful deaths. Where cheap horseflesh was a great consideration, horses suffering from navicular disease were picked up for the proverbial "old song," and, having been unnerved, were driven as leaders, and, with no weight on their backs, were able to do their work. In quite recent years a case is on record in which a horse which had been unnerved in this way was being run leader in a night Post Office Mail, and at the end of his stage it was discovered that one of the forefeet had dropped off, as sometimes happened after the performance of such an operation, and that the horse had been going for at least a mile and a half literally on three legs. In their own selfish interests mainly, some of the proprietors would not use horses which jibbed, kicked, reared, or in other ways "made a fuss" at starting, for fear of deterring nervous and timid folk from travelling.
Others, however, did not care a brass farthing so long as the horses were able to do the work expected of them when once warmed to their collars. were With a gradual but steady improvement in the surface of the roads, there came a corresponding improvement in the coaches and the class of horses drawing them.
Between 1830 and 1840, as the result of the work of such pioneers in road-making as Telford and Macadam, the Great North Road had been converted into a highway of such smooth surface and gentle gradients that coaching on it became a pleasure instead of a pain. With fifty or sixty coaches running over it daily, there gradually grew up the comfortable old coaching inns, of which, in modernised, though not always in improved, form, machine-made travel has DRIVING] brought about a revival. In order to appreciate the improved conditions and speed of travelling occasioned by the improvement in the roads, a few instances may be given of the times in which coach-journeys to and from London, which naturally was the great coaching centre, were performed. A coach named "The Wonder" used to run between Shrewsbury and London at an average rate of twelve miles an hour for the whole distance of 158 miles, day in and day out, throughout the whole year. The entire journey occupied sixteen hours, from which must be deducted sixty-five minutes spent in stoppages for food, and fifteen minutes for changing horses, so that the actual time of the coach, which was what was known as 66 a slow coach," was eleven and a half miles petition between Birmingham and London the "Tally ho!" and the "Independent Tally ho!" Over certain stages they travelled at the rate of eighteen and threequarter miles an hour, while only on one stage did they fall as low as twelve miles an hour. When they raced, as they did very often, they came all the way from Birmingham to London, including stops, at a speed of fourteen and a quarter miles an hour.
In the case of a road to which reference has been previously made-namely, the road between Oxford and London, though it was never reckoned a "quick " road, the journey by coach was accomplished in three hours and forty minutes, or at the rate of fourteen miles an hour, including stoppages. The fast coaches kept time to the minute, so [Photo. by W. W. Rouch.
PRESIDENT OF THE COACHING CLUB (LORD DESBOROUGH). an hour all the way between London and Shrewsbury. After a time someone put on another coach, called the "Nimrod," with the object, as was said, of "knocking 'The Wonder' into a cocked hat." The owner of "The Wonder," wishing to avoid as far as possible the necessity of increasing the pace, got another coach, christened "The Stag," which started directly after the "Nimrod," and just in front of The Wonder."
So, in order to prevent "The Wonder" from getting any passengers, it was carefully "shepherded" the whole way, with the result that the three coaches came along at such a "bat" that frequently all three arrived at Islington two hours in front of scheduled time. But this was not the fastest time. There were running in com- 66 much so that country people used to set their clocks by the "Comet" and the " Quicksilver Mail." The fastest coach on the road did what was known as the galloping stage of four miles in twelve minutes. At the zenith of the old coaching days there were running daily between Oxford and London ninety-seven coaches, or, roughly speaking, a coach to every half-mile. As most of these coaches were run in competition, two or three would start at the same hour, and, as they raced neck and neck all the way, the excitement must have been intense, especially when going under the archways of bridges, except, perhaps, for nervous old ladies inside, who, no doubt, would hardly see the fun of the thing." Between London and Barnet, again, there were 194 coaches running daily, or a coach pretty nearly every hundred yards. The Bath and Holyhead Roads were other great coach roads. But the coaches did not represent by any means the whole of the traffic. They were persons belonging to the middle classes who rode in coaches. Noblemen did not use them. It was beneath their dignity. The great man went in his chariot with relays of his own horses, while people not quite so rich went in post-chaises. Proprietors of posting establishments always kept several pairs of post-horses, all ready harnessed and on the pillar reins, with post-boys at hand, prepared to turn out on the instant, and when a gentleman's carriage was seen coming along at full gallop, the ostler would cry, "First and second horses turn out"; [DRIVING the writer of the reminiscences, who, from the year 1812 onward, was in the service of two of the principal coach proprietors, William Chaplin and Benjamin Worthy Horne, originally acted as guard of the Manchester coach "Peveril of the Peak," of which Bill Waller was the coachman. The opposition coach was the "Defiance," and the two coaches used to start respectively from the Swan with Two Necks in Lad Lane, and the Cross Keys in Wood Street.
The old guard of the "Peveril" writes: "At about 6 p.m. could be seen the two coaches with their guards and porters loading up for a long journey of 200 miles. The coaches were built for the comfort of the passengers, and for convenience in carrying heavy loads. On the off-side behind was THE "OLD TIMES," E. K. FOWNES ON THE BOX. and out they would turn in double quick time. The charge for a pair of horses ranged from a shilling to eighteen-pence a mile, and double this amount was paid for four horses. Poor people who could not afford to travel in any other way went in stage wagons, which carried the bulk of the traffic. as An Old Coachman's Experiences. - By the courtesy of Mr. Geo. T. Cable, now residing in Tunbridge Wells, who has lately retired from the service of the London and North Western Railway Company stationmaster at Wolverton, it is possible to give some hitherto unpublished personal experiences of seventy or eighty years ago, deciphered from the faded handwriting of one of the famous old coachmen on the Manchester Road. George Cable, senior, placed a chain net from the back seat, so that it would hold many barrels of oysters, with plenty of straw for the passengers, and a mail box or so. Under the guard's seat was the tool-box, containing screw-wrench, hammer, chisel, clips, shackles, bolts, nuts, traces, hames, hooks, chains, and straps of all sorts in case of need on the journey, the guards having to go through with their respective coaches, and being responsible for all under their care. A timepiece was placed under the box in a case on the offside for the coachman to see the time, and the guard wore a strap over his shoulder containing another timepiece and the way bill, so that time should be kept punctually.
In fact, the arrangements of these coaches w were perfection, well horsed, and above their work, with six lamps on each coach, DRIVING] two on either side, a footboard lamp, and one behind for the guard to look over his parcels for the road. Each had a trace chain over the lamp iron in case of need, so as to cause as little delay as possible in case of accident. At ten minutes to seven o'clock the horsekeepers put to the wellgroomed horses, and the coachman, neatly dressed in his well-made sleeve capes, gathered the reins and mounted the box.
The guard, with his coach well loaded, had his coats nicely arranged, partly hanging over, and at the side of his seat was strapped his E flat concert bugle, which so often enlivened the journey, and a long tin horn for waking the tollbar men at night. At seven o'clock punctually the coaches started, with lamps burning brightly and a lively tune on the bugle, the coachman, with his favourite whip, the double thong of which was beautifully caught up on the top knots, ready for a wipe across the shoulders of the wheelers if required.
On arrival at the Peacock at Islington, the last stopping place in London, if the weather was cold the passengers put on their warm coats, the guard gave a last look round to see that the tarpaulins were secure and that everything was made fast, and, having received his way bill, the word 'all right' was given, and away went the coaches within short distance of each other through Holloway and under Highgate Archway to The Woodman at a gentle trot. After leaving the Woodman they commenced their work; the horses, knowing well what they had to do, would snort and blow their noses; and you would feel the reins drawn tight by their desire for a long trot at a speed of from eleven to twelve miles an hour, swinging past the Nag's Head, up the rise, and then for a gallop up and down the short hill, with the horn blowing, to Whetstone, where the next team would be standing ready, equal to the last, but more blood-horses. Changing within a minute, they proceeded gently to Barnet, and then commenced their speed to Mimms, where, at the tollbar, a postboy was ready with a pair of horses to help up Ridgeway Hill, still doing their twelve miles an hour, both coaches close together, and no chance of shaking each other off.
At the top of the hill both took off their post-horses, and down the hill they went, with horns blowing, and drew up at the stables at Coney. Here the 'Peveril' got the start with four greys, the near leader, a nasty, raking, shying wretch, requiring the patience of Job to drive. At the time of which I am speaking they were altering the roads between St. Albans and Coney, a cutting away the tops of the hills, and filling up the bottoms. At the bottom of one of these hills the near leader shied and ran up the bank, and in a moment over we all came. Just as we got up and began to look about, up came the 'Defiance.' They pulled up, and Tim Barnes, the guard, called out to me: 'George, do you want any help?' 'No, thank you, Tim,' I replied. 'You go on and say I am coming all right.
Good-night.' As soon as they were gone we set to work, my passengers helping, to get the coach up. I looked round and could see nothing broke, only one lamp and two traces, [Photo. by W. W. Rouch.
THE WINDSOR "REYNARD." which were soon replaced. Re-starting with a determination to see Manchester first, we gave the greys a long gallop up to St. Albans, and when I looked at my timepiece I found that the accident had not delayed us more than thirty-five minutes, and we were determined to make up the time. The 'Defiance' went through Redburn, Northampton, and Harboro. The 'Peveril' turned off at St. Albans and went through Harpenden, Luton, Bedford, and Kettering, and the two coaches joined again at Harboro. We gave them the long gallop, and reached Bedford to supper at midnight, fifteen minutes late. I got my passengers to eat their suppers as quick as they possibly could, and we managed to leave Bedford only eleven minutes late, all of us in great glee to think that we should be able to surprise our 'Defiance' gentlemen by making an unexpected appearance. When we reached Kettering, eleven miles from Harboro, we had made up the fifteen minutes. We changed in a minute, and off again. Between Kettering and Harboro it is very high ground, and there is a hill called Hermitage, from the top of which we could see the lamps of the 'Defiance' going over the Oxenden Hill. I got along the near side of the coach and turned the lamp so that they should not see ours, which I have oftentimes done. A few miles on we caught a glare of light on the Oxenden Road. It was the 'Defiance' passing over the brow of the hill. They could not see the least glimpse of me, as I had turned my lamp away. We went over the brow of the hill, galloping down one hill and up to the top of another before the horses could feel the weight of the coach behind [DRIVING 'uns; let's see what pluck you have got.
All my fancy-made coachmen and guards have returned with their coaches, and haven't pluck enough to go on. Now you both understand; you are going out with your coach to-night, and don't let me see either of your faces again until you have been through to Nottingham and back."
Cable relates how, after encountering many difficulties, the journey was eventually accomplished, how on some of the stages six and even eight horses were used, and how the horses plunged through the snowdrifts.
As a memento of the occasion, Cable made an excellent model of the "Commercial," with horses, passengers, and every- A MEET OF THE COACHING CLUB IN HYDE PARK. them. We beat the 'Defiance' into Market Harboro, changed horses, and out again before they made an appearance, and we made the best of our way to Leicester, knowing that they would be after us without fail; but in the end our hopes were realised, and we arrived at Manchester first."
It was this same George Cable, with Geo. Hammond as his guard, who drove the "Commercial" from the Swan with Two Necks to Nottingham on the memorable night of Christmas, 1836, when snow fell almost continuously for three days, and a south-westerly wind drifted it in many places on the road to a depth of ten feet.
Cable describes how the proprietor of the Commercial," Mr. Wm. Chaplin, said to him: "George Hammond and you are little [Photo. by W. W. Rouch. thing complete. He also built a model of a gentleman's private drag for the 1851 exhibition, and received for it a medal and certificate signed by the Prince Consort.
His last journey ended at Northampton, and it almost broke the old man's heart to see his favourite coach, the "Commercial," loaded up on a railway truck to go to London. On his eightieth birthday he commenced a model of the Portsmouth night coach "Nelson," of which James Whitehurst was coachman, and Wm. Cable, jun., was guard, but he did not live to finish it. It was, however, subsequently completed, painted, and upholstered by his son, Geo. T. Cable, with the assistance of Albert Dawson and Wm. Brewer. Old George Cable spent the closing years of his DRIVING] life at Peterboro, where he used frequently to dress, as though about to start on a journey, in his old-fashioned coat with large buttons, broad-brimmed hat, and carrying his rug and whip, would walk contentedly about the town. When he died there was placed on his coffin a splinter bar of blue and yellow flowers, the coaching colours, bearing the inscription, "He faithfully discharged his last pike." The Royal Mails. - The Mail coach era, from its origin to the time of its gradual displacement by railways, covered just about half a century. When the mails carried by men on horseback or in light carts, robbery was of frequent occurrence, were ing, did not reach East Grinstead, a distance of forty-six miles, until half-past three o'clock in the afternoon. There were stoppages of an hour each at Epsom, Dorking, and Reigate, with a quarter of an hour's delay at Leatherhead, so that the rate of travelling, including stoppages, worked out at just a fraction over four miles an hour.
Even fifty years later, on some of the great roads, an average of five miles an hour was considered quite a good speed. It was in circumstances such as these that Mr. John Palmer, manager of the Bath Theatre, suggested to Mr. Pitt that no longer should the mails be carried on horseback or in carts, but in coaches, on which armed men should “ A MEET OF THE FOUR-IN-HAND CLUB IN HYDE PARK. the service was very inefficiently performed, and the rate of travelling rarely exceeded four miles an hour. In 1700 it took two days to go from London to Salisbury, and a week to go from London to York. An old time bill dated 1717, which was issued to the several postmasters between London and East Grinstead, is headed, Haste, haste, post haste," just as, even in these days, some ill-informed country folk still write the words, "Run postman, run in " on the envelopes containing their letters, apparently with the object of insuring expedition. Some quickening impulse was certainly needed when we are told that the mails conveyed either on horseback or in carts which were despatched from the Letter Office in London on July 7th, 1717, at half-past two o'clock in the morn- VOI. II Photo. by W. W. Rouch. travel for the protection of the mails, and that they should all start from London at the same hour, their departure from the country being also so ordered as to insure, as far as possible, simultaneous arrival in London in the early hours of the morning.
Among the early contractors who undertook to run stage coaches and horse the mail coaches were Sherman, Ann Nelson and her sons, Mountain, Chaplin, Horne, and others. The rule was one horse to each mile" one side of the road," as it was termed " and the fast coaches, in which thoroughbred horses, not speedy enough for racing, were often used leaders, were run in six- or seven-mile stages. At the same time the general character of the horses improved, the main qualities required in them being sound legs as and feet and action, combined with speed and stamina, a combination more easy of attainment, perhaps, then than now. The average price of coach horses was £25 to £60 apiece for fancy teams, such as were used on the first stage out of London, but with fair work, good feeding, and good condition, they increased in value. On the fast roads the horses used to last about four years, and on the slow coaches about seven years was the average period of usefulness.
The first mail coach left London for Bristol in the evening of August 24th, 1784, and eighteen months after the system of mail coaches was thus inaugurated, the chief postmasters throughout the kingdom represented to the Lords of the Treasury that it had resulted in a considerable decrease of the postal revenue. But Mr. Pitt, recognising the advantages of increased safety and of speedier, more frequent, and certain facilities of communication, determined that his scheme should be continued and completed in all its essentials. The result was that by the year 1797 the majority of the mails were conveyed in one-half, in many instances in one-third, and in the case of the cross-country posts, in one-quarter of the time previously occupied. Daily posts were also established to about 800 places, where previously there had been deliveries and dispatches only about three times a week. In 1836 there were fifty-four mail coaches in England, thirty in Ireland, and ten in Scotland. The Angel and the Peacock at Islington were the starting-places for the North-Country mails, and coaches for the Southern Counties used to call at the Elephant and Castle, where passengers also changed into branch coaches for various destinations. Another famous old coaching inn was the White Horse in Fetter Lane, whence the "Cambridge Telegraph," driven by Dick Vaughan, used to start. Some of the coachmen made these inns their headquarters, and intending passengers by the early morning coaches would come up from the country overnight and put up at them.
In one of Pollard's well-known coaching prints of the "Elephant" are depicted in the foreground a private carriage with postillions, and a fly van, as it was called, for carrying light parcels "express"; on the right hand is a road wagon with six horses, used for the conveyance of heavy goods, while hackney carriages are bringing up passengers for the various stages on the Brighton Road, and on the left three porters are having a free fight over some luggage.
In 1837 the number of coaches leaving the General Post Office, St. Martin's le 66 [DRIVING Grand, every night was twenty-seven, covering a total of about 5,500 miles in the course of their respective journeys. Another of Pollard's pictures, engraved by H. Pyall, and published by Fores, shows the northeast wing of the General Post Office with the Royal Mails preparing to start for Hastings, Dover, Brighton, Ipswich, Norwich, Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, Louth, Hull, Holyhead, Chester, Edinburgh, and Glasgow. The annual procession, on the birthday of the Sovereign, of mail coaches with their fine, high-mettled horses, neat and workmanlike harness with its bright mountings, and coachmen and guards wearing the Royal livery, must have been a brave sight. The procession proceeded from the City to the West End and through Hyde Park, usually, as a compliment, passing, on its way, the residence of the Postmaster-General of the time. Sir Francis Head, writing of this "gala turn-out of coaches on the King's birthday," says: "I always think that it must impress foreigners more than anything else in our country with the sterling, solid integrity of the English character." Confirmation of this view is also to be found in the impressions of Von Raumer, who, in his England in Eighteen Thirty-five," pays high tribute to the impressiveness of the spectacle when he writes: "Such a splendid display of carriages-and-four as these mail coaches afford could not be found or got together in all Berlin. It was a real pleasure to see them in all the pride and strength which an hour later was to send them in every direction with incredible rapidity to every corner of England." The coaches were equally popular among the population of the country districts through which they passed. To quote Washington Irving's description: "A coach carries animation along with it, and puts the world in motion as it whirls along. The horn, sounded at the entrance of a village, produces a general bustle. Some people hasten forth to meet friends, others with bundles and band-boxes to secure places, and in the hurry of the moment can hardly find time to take leave of the group that accompanies them. In the meantime the coachman has a host of small commissions to execute.
Sometimes he delivers a hare or pheasant; sometimes he jerks a small parcel or a newspaper to the door of a public-house; and sometimes, with knowing leer and words of sly import, he hands to a half-blushing, half-laughing housemaid an odd-shaped billet doux from a rustic admirer." Who, again, does not cherish a pleasant recollection of the vivid description given by Tom DRIVING] Hughes in "Tom Brown's Schooldays" of the arrival and departure of a coach in the country? But the days of the mail coach are past and gone, never, alas! to return, and, by way of epitaph, General Birch Reynardson has written :- "Though the coachmen of old are dead, Though the guards are turned into clay, You will still remember the yard of tin And the mail of the olden day."
It was not long after the elder Weller had retired from business, and had ceased to drive either from the George and Vulture in Gracechurch Street to Dorking, or from THE TATE LIBRARY, BRIXTON, S.W. 147 dents of the journey. In fact, it seems indifferent to them whether they are to encounter the summer's heat or the winter's cold, since they are borne through the air in a winged chariot. The mail carts drive up, the transfer of packages is made, and at a given signal they start off, bearing the irrevocable scrolls that give wings to thought and that bind or sever hearts for ever!
How we hate the Putney and Brentford 'stages,' that draw up in a line after the mail coaches are gone! Some people think the sublimest object in Nature is a ship launched on the bosom of the ocean. But give me for my private satisfaction the mail 66 NEARING BRIGHTON. ROAD TRAVELLING BY COACH IN MODERN TIMES. the Bull in Whitechapel to Ipswich, that the admirers of the old long-stage drivers and highflyers," as they were called, which provided such a stirring spectacle outside the White Horse Cellars, in Piccadilly, began to lament the signs of decay in the oncepopular institution of coaching. Still, so long as the stage coaches remained, there was enough of the pastime left to evoke the enthusiasm of such a keen observer as Hazlitt, who declared that "The finest sight in the metropolis is that of the mail coaches setting off from Piccadilly. The horses paw the ground and are impatient to begone, as if conscious of the precious burden they convey. There is a peculiar secrecy and despatch, significant and full of meaning, in all the proceedings concerning them. Even the outside passengers have an erect and supercilious air, as if proof against the accicoaches that pour down Piccadilly of an evening, tear up the pavement, and devour the way before them to the Land's End." "Even the Putney and Brentford stages," he goes on to remark, "have been superseded by the Putney and Brentford omnibuses," of which, in one of the old Swanborough burlesques at the little Strand theatre in the early 'seventies, Edward Terry, still, fortunately, among us, though in more sedate and sober guise, used so blithely to sing in his own quaint way: "Go to Putney; go to Putney; go in a Royal blue; Go to Chelsea, Fulham, too; Go to Putney," and so on and so forth. Now, in their turn, these Royal Blues are threatened with extinction along with the "hansom" and the "shoful," the "jehu" and the "jarvey," while the London cabby who survives must forsooth be known by another and more imposing name, and L2 must learn to steer with a wheel instead of by means of reins and a bit. Among the best-known men on the road in the olden days were Harry and Charles Ward, Sam Goodman, the Snows, Cracknell, who was the first man to do without cruppers on his leaders, Holmes, James Adlane, Jim Carter, Moody, Harry Simpson, Dick Vaughan, Bill Mitchell, Bob Flack, of the Birmingham "Tally ho"; Tom Bramble (the independent "Tally ho"), Williams (the Birmingham "Eclipse"), Bill Waller ("Peveril of the Peak"), James Whitehurst (the Portsmouth "Nelson"), Frank Faulkner (the Portsmouth "Rocket"), John Durham (Portsmouth "Independent"), Wm. Um- [DRIVING to the highest degree, while the goldmounted horse-cloths, still to be seen in the British Museum, are edged with wide, silver lace and embroidered at the corners with Royal crowns and sprays of laurel. After the death, in the prime of life, from exposure, of Stevenson, who, on his deathbed, expressed the wish that his favourite skewbald mare who used to run as near leader should be shot, the "Age" was horsed and driven by Sir St. Vincent Cotton.
Mr. Charles Brindley, better known, perhaps, as "Harry Hieover," was also one of those who took to horsing and driving stage coaches as a means of livelihood, while the Duke of Beaufort, the Duke of Somer- THE WINNING TEAM OF THE CORINTHIAN, 1910. (MR. W. H. MOORE.) berton ("Portsmouth Mail"), Thos. Kirby (Guildford), George Cable (Nottingham 66 Commercial"), Bill Hargraves (Manchester "Bruce"), and, among amateurs, the Marquis of Worcester, the Earl of Chesterfield, Colonel Clithero, Colonel Sibthorpe, Sir Bellingham Graham, the Hon. Fitzroy Stanhope, the Hon. T. Kenyon, Mr.
Sackville Gwynne, Mr. Maxse, Mr. Henry Villebois, the Squire of Marham, Master of the V.W.H. and afterwards of the West Norfolk Foxhounds, Mr. Baker, Mr. John Warde, the Father of Fox-hunting, and Mr. Stevenson, who, having run through his money while at Cambridge, was started by his friends with the best-appointed coach on the London and Brighton Road.
The "Age," as it was called, was splendidly horsed, the steel pole-chains were burnished [Photo.by W. W. Rouch. set, Captain Barclay of Ury (the hero of a thousand miles in a thousand hours), Mr.
Charles Jones, and the Hon. Edward Jerningham, concerned themselves closely with the affairs of the road.
The palmy days of coaching were between 1820 and 1836, and the link was broken in 1858, when the "Brighton Age," under the management of Clarke, and subsidized by the Duke of Beaufort and Sir George Wombwell, was given up. For eight years there was not a road coach running on the Brighton Road, but in the year 1866, long after the business of stage coaching had died out except as a connecting link in combination with railway services, a couple of coaches were horsed and run between London and Brighton by the Duke of Beaufort, Mr. Chandos Pole (The Squire), DRIVING] Captain Charles Lawrie, Mr. B. J. ("Cherry") Angel, Captain Haworth, and a few others. Their example was shortly afterwards followed by the Earl of Bective, Colonel Stracey Clitherow, Colonel Hathorne, and Mr. Charles Hoare. These coaches were started for the fun of driving them, but, of course, it was hoped that they would be so far patronised as to make the passenger fares pay a decent proportion of the outgoings. It may, however, safely be asserted that none of the modern coaches ever came near paying their expenses. In every case there was a large deficit, which had to be taken out in pleasure. In the majority of cases, the proprietors of a coach did not buy their horses, but contracted with some large dealer or jobmaster to supply as many horses as might be requisite to work the coach. In those instances in which the proprietors purchased their own horses they sold at the end of the season, and if the horses had been well bought, they made some money over the studs. A good many of the horses were hunters, and people who were in want of a horse to ride to hounds early in the season knew that in buying a hunter out of a coach they were purchasing a horse in the best possible condition, and fit to go to work at once, and this fact accounts for some of the remunerative prices which were occasionally obtained.
Frequently two or three friends ran a coach together, and shared the driving, and no one else had a chance of "taking hold," unless they were known to the proprietors, and were given a stage or two by them.
In the year 1878, however, a new departure was made. Major Dixon and one or two more put on the St. Albans "Wonder" coach, of which James Selby was one of the professionals. Selby, who had been professional on the Tunbridge Wells coach, by and by started a subscription coach-that is to say, a coach to which several amateurs subscribed a fixed sum, and in return for their money they had the privilege of driving one day a week, or on other days, if they went, provided that no other subscriber was present. The passenger fares, of course, went to the proprietor-that is to say, to Selby in this case, and so, if there were six subscribers paying £100 each, the proprietor had the nice little sum of £600 to work upon, irrespective of what he might take in passenger fares. This, of course, made all the difference between profit and loss.
It was on July 11th, 1888, about the year before the few London coaches remaining commenced running from one or other of the Northumberland Avenue hotels, in place of the White Horse Cellars, or Hatchett's, to give it its new name, that, for a wager of £1,000 to £500, Jim Selby (who died in December of the same year), the most famous coachman of the day, drove the "Old Times" coach from London to Brighton and back, a distance of 108 miles, in seven hours fifty minutes. The pace averaged thirteen and a half miles an hour, including the time occupied in changing horses sixteen times during the journey. The longest stop occupied a little over a minute, and in one case at least the teams were changed in fortyseven seconds. The outward journey was accomplished in three hours fifty minutes ten seconds, but this performance, good as it was, had been beaten in 1837, when Israel Alexander drove from London to Brighton with Queen Victoria's first speech to Parliament in three hours forty minutes.
One by one most of the coaches put on the road by private proprietors have dropped out, and their places have been taken by coaches to which amateurs desirous of driving four-in-hand subscribe. In the matter of horsing, the modern coaches compare favourably with many of the older coaches, the tendency being nowadays rather to overhorse. The teams, being, as a rule, well bought and carefully put together, frequently give a margin of profit at the end of the season. In some cases the system of contracting for the horses is adopted, but it is rather costly, and when the horses are sold, the profit, if any, of course goes to the contractor.
Though a few coaches have continued to be run every summer in London, chiefly from the Victoria and Metropole Hotels, motoring has greatly interfered with them and reduced their chances of profit. At the same time, some of them still load fairly well in fine weather, but on wet days it is no uncommon thing for the professional coachman, the guard, and the subscriber of the day, to be the sole occupants of the coach.
In 1907 a fillip was given to coaching through the starting, by Mr. Alfred G.
Vanderbilt, of the "Venture" coach between London and Brighton with fiftyeight horses for the job. So encouraging were the results of his first season considered that in the following year he put on two coaches, the "Venture" and the Viking," of which one ran down to Brighton and one came up to London every day, over hundred horses, mostly American bred, being in use for the double work. In 1910, however, the "Viking" ،، a was taken off again, and the number of horses was reduced to sixty, which, instead of being shipped back to America as on former occasions, had been wintered at Cricklewood and regularly driven, with the result that, when they started on May 2nd, they were in excellent condition and thoroughly fit for their work. The down journeys were made on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, and the up journeys on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, the teams being rested on Sundays. In previous seasons almost invariably the recognised coach route to Brighton had been by Roehampton, Old Malden, Burgh Heath, Reigate, Horley, Crawley, Handcross, Hickstead, and Pyecombe, but during the season in question, in order to avoid tramways and motors where possible, after passing Old Malden, a digression was made by way of Epsom, Burford Bridge, Dorking, Capel, Horsham, Cowfold, Henfield, and so to Pyecombe. Many of the older coachmen hold that this last-named route, though slightly longer, is the best to Brighton, especially as it avoids some of the worst hills, especially those at Reigate and below Epsom Corner and Burgh Heath. Mr. W. A.
Barron, who in previous years had run his "Venture" and "Vivid" between London and Windsor and London and Hampton Court, respectively, also took off one of his coaches, and ran the "Venture" alone to Hampton Court and back daily, going by Putney Bridge, Kingston Vale, Coombe Woods, Worcester Park, and Ditton, and returning by Twickenham, Richmond, East Sheen, and Hammersmith. A third coach, Selby's "Old Times," as sound as ever in body, though, of course, the wheels and under-carriage have been renewed, was again put on by Messrs. C. and S. Ward and Sons, and run daily, Sundays excepted, from the Hotel Victoria to Oatlands Park and back. It was a healthy sign of reviving or surviving interest in the good old sport that there should be a more than full list of subscribers. They were Lieut.-Colonel Wyatt