Turnor
Mr. Leonard Powell, Mr. Alan Lupton, all well-known members of the Coaching Club, driving, respectively, on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, Lord Leconfield, M.F.H., representing the Four-in-Hand Club, who took the box on Tuesdays; on Wednesdays Mr.
Hill, R.A., took turns with Mr. Powell, and Mr. W. Rudstone-Faulconer drove on Saturdays. The professional driver was E. K. Fownes, more familiarly known as "Ted" Fownes, a worthy successor of ،، [DRIVING "Daddy" of that ilk, and the doyen of the road at the present time. Among other coaches on the road were Mr. P. H.
Hughes's "Tantivy," running between London and Kingston; Mr. Geo. Chapman's Brighton and Eastbourne "Vigilant"; the Magnet," which Mr. Leighton Greaves runs between Great Missenden and Rickmansworth; the coach run in the Savernake district by Captain T. Hooper Deacon, of the V.W.H. Repository, Swindon; the Chester and Shrewsbury coach; Mr. T. A.
Cook's Cromer and Norwich coach; and several others of less note in various tourist districts.
While on his way home from India, Mr.
R. Craig-McKerrow, well known on the Folkestone and Canterbury Road as far back as 1903, and one of the subscribers in 1909 to Mr. George Chapman's London and Box Hill "Perseverance," heard that Mr. Barron was giving up the Windsor Road, and, adhering strictly to the etiquette which gives a man prescriptive right for two years to the road on which he has been running, telegraphed from Cairo to know whether there would be any objection raised to his running a coach between London and Windsor. Naturally, as between two such good sportsmen, there was no obstacle, so further telegrams were sent to have the necessary horses got together. Seven teams were in readiness soon after Mr.
Craig-McKerrow's return, and, barely three weeks after May Day, when the coaching season is supposed to start, the well-appointed "Reynard," newest of the road coaches, the "Old Times," of course, being the oldest, was running with good loads over the familiar road to Windsor by Ranelagh, Barnes, Roehampton, Sheen, Richmond, Twickenham, Bushey Park, Hurst Park, Kempton, Staines, Runnymede, Magna Charta Island, and the Long Walk. On Wednesdays and Saturdays Mr. Craig-McKerrow drove himself, and he had for his professional Harry King, one-time of the "Magnet," who had been driving Mr. Vanderbilt's horses in pairs throughout the winter.
The Driving Clubs. -Though we are deprived of the picturesque procession of mail coaches on the King's birthday, we still have our gatherings of four-horse coaches at the meets of the two great driving associations, the Four-in-Hand and Coaching Clubs, at the Powder Magazine in Hyde Park, to which the Horse Guards Parade has now entirely given place. The first driving club of which there is any record was the Bensington Driving Club (the DRIVING] to B.D.C. as it was called), established in 1807. Its membership was limited twenty-five, and during the first sixteen years of its existence these members used to drive twice in the course of the season to Bensington, near Wallingford, in Oxfordshire, and twice to Bedford. The Bensington and Bedford drives were given up in 1832, and in 1852 the club was dissolved. In 1808 the Four Horse Club was formed by Mr. Charles Buxton. In 1820 it was given up, but was revived two years later, and was carried on until 1829. In 1838 the Earl of Chesterfield started the Chesterfield Driving Club, of which the members used to meet at Chesterfield House and drive down to Richmond for dinner. This club continued in existence for nine or ten Aveland) was elected President, and has remained so ever since. At a dinner held at the Ritz Hotel in 1909 the oldest members of the Club present were General Dickson, forty-eight years; the Earl of Ancaster, forty-one years; Mr. Adrian Hope, thirty-eight years; the Marquis of Londonderry and Mr. R. A. Oswald, thirtyfive years each; Lord Tredegar, thirty-two years; Mr. Walter Long, M.P., thirty-five years; Colonel Chandos Pole and Sir Henry Ewart, twenty-eight years each; Major Atherley, twenty-three years; Lord Cheylesmore, twenty-two years; General Brocklehurst and Captain Spicer, twenty-one years each; and Sir Savile Crossley, twenty years.
Of those with over twenty years of membership, who for various reasons were unable [Photo. by W. W. Rouch.
THE WINNING TEAM OF THE COACHING MARATHON, 1910. (MR. A. G. VANDERBILT.) years. The Four-in-Hand Club, whose membership is limited to fifty, was founded in 1858 at a luncheon given by the Marquis of Hertford at his residence in Hamil ton Place, and Mr. J. L. Baldwin and Mr. Agar-Ellis were the first secretaries.
The founders of the club were thirteen in number, the then Duke of Beaufort and the Marquis of Hertford being, respectively, President and Vice-President. The first meet took place at Hyde Park Corner in April, 1856. The Duke of Beaufort continued to hold the office of President until May, 1897, when he resigned, to the general regret of the members, and at their earnest request he consented to accept the office of Honorary President, which he held until his death in 1899. On the resignation of the Duke of Beaufort, the Earl of Ancaster (then Lord to be present, there were Sir John Lister Kaye, with thirty-five years; Lord Charles Beresford, thirty-three years; the Duke of Portland, twenty-eight years; and the Earl of Lonsdale, the Earl of Onslow, and the Marquis of Cholmondeley each with twentyfour years. Other members are the Duke of Connaught, Prince Henry of Pless, the Duke of Beaufort, the Earl of Shrewsbury, the Earl of Derby, Lord Desborough, Lord Poltimore, Lord Islington (formerly Sir John Dickson-Poynder), the Hon. W. F. D.
Smith, until lately M.P. for the Strand Division; Colonel Bingham and Captain the Hon. Algernon Stanley, Ist Life Guards.
Of recent years the principal driving members have been Lord Iveagh, Lord Hothfield, Lord Knaresborough, Lord Leconfield, Lord Ludlow, Lord Wandsworth, Colonel Frank Shuttleworth, the Hon. W. F. D. Smith, Colonel Sir Alfred Somerset, Lieut.-Colonel Sir Audley Neeld, Captain the Hon. Algernon Stanley, Mr.
S. Hope Morley, Mr. Edward Colston, and Mr. Albert Brassey. The most recently elected new member is the Marquis of Downshire. Previously to 1904 the average muster of coaches at the meets and at Ascot was a score, but, as will be seen from the following table, there has been a sad falling off of late years :- ...
FOUR-IN-HAND DRIVING CLUB.
Attendance at meets. ...
Attendance First meet.
Second meet. at Ascot. 1904 20 16 15 1905 ...
IO (wet day) 9 (wet day) II 1906 ... 16 II ... 9 1907 ... ... 19 12 9 1908 18 ... ... 8 (wet day) 8 1909 18 II ... ... 5 4 In the case of the Coaching Club, which was founded by Lord Hothfield and Mr.
George Goddard, there are no records kept previously to 1874, at which date 151 members had been elected. Up to the year 1910 there had been 332 elections altogether. Of the original members only three are still living, namely, Viscount Valentia, Major Jary, and Mr. John Mitchell. As in the case of the Four-in- Hand Club, the first President was the late Duke of Beaufort, who resigned in 1897, but remained a Vice-President until the time of his death two years later. The other Presidents have been Lord Hothfield, 1897-1901; Lord Newlands, 1902-1906; and Lord Desborough, better known, perhaps, in the world of sport as Mr. William Henry Grenfell, the famous Oxford University oarsman, swordsman, and athlete. The Vice-Presidents have been Earl Carington, from 1874 to 1882; Lord Hothfield 1882-97; Sir John Thursby 1897-1901; Mr. Albert Brassey, 1902-08; and from the last date onward Sir Lindsay Lindsay-Hogg. Among the principal driving members in recent years have been Lord Desborough, Lord Wandsworth, Lord Leith of Fyvie, Sir Lindsay Lindsay-Hogg, Sir George Hastings, Sir Frederick Banbury, Mr.
Edward Colston, Mr. C. J. Phillips, Mr.
Alan Lupton, Mr. Richard Budgett, Mr. S. Hope Morley, Mr. Leonard Powell, Captain Allfrey, Mr. Henry Allhusen, Colonel Baldock, Mr. W. F. Holt Beever, Mr. Albert Brassey, Sir Frederick Cook, Captain Quintin Dick, Mr. B. S. Faudel- Phillips, Mr. Reginald Hargreaves, Mr.
John H. Horton, Major Jary, Sir David [DRIVING Salomons, Mr. Hubert Mundey, the Hon.
George Savile, Colonel Frank Shuttleworth, the Hon. W. F. D. Smith, Colonel Sir Alfred Somerset, Sir Edward Stern, Lieut.- Colonel Wyatt Turnor, and Mr. A. G.
Vanderbilt. The membership, which, previous to 1892, was always well over a hundred, was subsequently limited to a hundred, and, by 1910, had been gradually reduced to sixty-three. Since 1896 the funds of the club have been invested to the amount of £1,300, and annual subscriptions are made to the Cab Drivers' Benevolent Association, the London General Omnibus Sickness and Accident Club, and the London Van Horse Parade Society. As regards the important position of Secretary, the first person to fill that office in the case of the Four-in-Hand Club was one of its founders, Mr. W. Morritt. On his death in 1874 Mr.
J. R. Lovegrove was appointed Secretary of the Four-in-Hand Club, and, four years later, of the Coaching Club also, on the retirement of the then Honorary Secretary. Colonel Armytage. After holding the office for thirty years, during which he gave the word to "throw off " at most of the meets of the two clubs, Mr. Lovegrove resigned on account of ill-health, and his place was taken and is still filled by Mr. Harry Fincham, I.S.O.
The following abstract gives the numbers of coaches which have mustered at the meets of the Coaching Club and at Ascot during the six years 1904-09 inclusive :- 1904 .. ...
Ascot.
Ist Meet. 2nd Meet. 23 26 1904 ...
I2 1905 24 20 1905 10 ... 1905 I I ... 15 1906 6 ... 1907 18 ... 14 1907 ... 5 1908 ... 17 14 1908 ... 7 1909 19 15 1909 4 ... ...
Owing to the death of King Edward VII. there was only one meet of each club in the year 1910, when the number of coaches present in each case was a dozen.
Coaching Marathon and Corinthian. - In 1909 a much-needed impetus was given to coaching by the institution in connection with the International Horse Show at Olympia of what has been popularised under the name of the Coaching Marathon, though, as a matter of course, it differs considerably in its details from the four-horse chariot races of the great Greek Olympiad, in which undying fame was sought and gained by such historical personages as Arcesilaus of Cyrene (who was the object of praise in Pindaric Ode for having brought off his chariot uninjured from a contest in which forty were taking part); DRIVING] a Cylon, the would-be tyrant of Athens; Pausanias, King of Sparta; Archelaus of Macedon; Gelon and Hero of Syracuse; Theron of Agrigentum; and that dandy of dandies, Alcibiades. The first Coaching Marathon of the twentieth century, which was open to both road coaches and private drags, started from the Hampton Court end of Bushey Park. The coaches approached the starter at a walk in numerical order previously arranged at minute intervals, and the time was taken from the word " go" given by the starter.
The rules of the road were that, in the event of a coach desiring to pass the one ahead of it, the coachman of the latter must allow the following coach to do so if its leaders reached the splinter bar of the coach in front. The coachman of the coach being thus passed was not allowed to pull his team across or in any way to obstruct the right of way of the passing coach. In the event of the coachman of the approaching coach, on reaching the splinter bar, being unable to pass within two minutes, the official representative on the leading coach was instructed to sign to the driver to pull behind again, so that the coach desiring to pass should not hold the off-side of the road for more than two minutes. The competitors were allowed to pass each other only at a trot, and the journey of about ten miles and a half had to be made without a stop, except for necessary adjustment of harness, &c.
No vehicle of any description was allowed to be driven for the benefit of any competitor, either before or behind or alongside of his coach. Each coach had to be driven along the specified route, and was not permitted to leave the high road or drive on the pathway in order to gain an advantage.
Any coach failing to arrive within fifteen minutes of the allotted time of seventy-five minutes was subject to disqualification, but points were not credited for time saved.
The route after passing out of Bushey Park into Park Road was turning right-handed over Teddington Railway Bridge, then sharp to the left down Waldegrave Road, past Strawberry Hill and Pope's Grotto into