Add files from ibiblio as of 2025-03-03 17:54:11HEADmain

1 files changed, 1170 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/44864-0.txt b/44864-0.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..37d2376
--- /dev/null
+++ b/44864-0.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,1170 @@
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44864 ***
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 44864-h.htm or 44864-h.zip:
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/44864/44864-h/44864-h.htm)
+      or
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/44864/44864-h.zip)
+
+
+      Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive. See
+      https://archive.org/details/coachingdaysways00cumi
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+      Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
+
+      Text in small capitals has been changed to upper case.
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+COACHING DAYS & WAYS
+
+by
+
+E. D. CUMING
+
+With Illustrations by G. Denholm Armour
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+The British
+Sport Series
+
+Hodder and Stoughton
+
+
+
+
+COACHING
+
+
+The many boons conferred by Mr. John Palmer upon his generation faded
+before the advance of the railways; but he has deserved well of
+posterity, if only for that he altered the coach team from three horses
+to four. Until that enterprising man undertook to demonstrate that
+the coach could carry letters more rapidly and safely than could the
+post-boy, our ancestors had been content with the unicorn team; but
+after Palmer had astonished the world by making the journey from Bath
+to London, in 1784, at the rate of nearly seven miles an hour, the team
+of four horses gradually but steadily supplanted that of three in the
+stages on almost every road in the country.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  _The Stage Coach:
+  Old Times
+
+  Painting by G. D. Armour._]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+It is generally assumed that fast coaching only came into existence
+after the macadamisation of the roads; but this is not quite the case.
+Under favourable conditions the speed attained in pre-Macadam days
+was nearly as great as it became later. The _Sporting Magazine_ of
+June 1807 says: 'Lately one of the stage coaches on the North road ran
+from London to Stamford, a distance of 90 miles, in 9 hours 4 minutes.
+The passengers, four in number, breakfasted and dined on the road, so
+it must have run at the rate of 12 miles an hour all the time it was
+travelling.'
+
+The 'old heavies' discarded under Palmer's drastic rule worked out
+their lives as ordinary stage coaches, and some of these remained on
+the road until well on in the nineteenth century.
+
+Nimrod's description of the old-time coachman is worth giving:--
+
+'The old-fashioned coachman to a heavy coach--and they were all heavy
+down to very recent times--bore some analogy with the prize-fighter,
+for he stood highest who could hit hardest. He was generally a man
+of large frame, made larger by indulgence, and of great bodily
+power--which was useful to him. To the button-hole of his coat were
+appended several whipcord points, which he was sure to have occasion
+for on the road, for his horses were whipped till whipping was as
+necessary to them as their harness. In fair play to him, however, he
+was not solely answerable for this; the spirit of his cattle was broken
+by the task they were called to perform--for in those days twenty-mile
+stages were in fashion--and what was the consequence? Why, the
+four-horse whip and the Nottingham whipcord were of no avail over the
+latter part of the ground, and something like a cat-o'-nine-tails was
+produced out of the boot, which was jocularly called the "apprentice";
+and a shrewd apprentice it was to the art of torturing which was
+inflicted on the wheelers without stint or measure, but without which
+the coach might have been often left on the road. One circumstance
+alone saved these horses from destruction; this was the frequency of
+ale-houses on the road, not one of which could then be passed without a
+call.
+
+'Still, our old-fashioned coachman was a scientific man in his
+calling--more so, perhaps, than by far the greater part of his
+brethren of the present day, inasmuch as his energies and skill were
+more frequently put to the test. He had heavy loads, bad roads, and
+weary horses to deal with, neither was any part of his harness to be
+depended on, upon a pinch. Then the box he sat upon was worse than
+Pandora's, with all the evils it contained, for even hope appeared to
+have deserted it. It rested on the bed of the axletree, and shook the
+frame to atoms; but when prayers were put up to have it altered, the
+proprietors said, "No; the rascal will always be asleep if we place
+his box on the springs." If among all these difficulties, then, he, by
+degrees, became a drunkard, who can wonder at his becoming so? But he
+was a _coachman_. He could fetch the last ounce out of a wheel-horse
+by the use of his double thong or his "apprentice," and the point
+of his lash told terribly upon his leaders. He likewise applied it
+scientifically, it was directed under the bar to the flank, and after
+the third hit he brought it up to his hand by _the draw_, so that it
+never got entangled in the pole-chains, or in any part of the harness.
+He could untie a knot with his teeth and tie another with his tongue,
+as well as he could with his hands; and if his thong broke off in the
+middle, he could splice it with dexterity and even with neatness as
+his coach was proceeding on its journey. It short, he could do what
+coachmen of the present day cannot do, because they have not been
+called upon to do it; and he likewise could do what they never tried to
+do--namely, he could drive when he was drunk nearly as well as when he
+was sober. He was very frequently a faithful servant to his employers;
+considered trustworthy by bankers and others in the country through
+which he passed; and as humane to his horses, perhaps, as the adverse
+circumstances he was placed in by his masters would admit.'
+
+Time has dealt kindly with the reputation of the old stage coachman,
+and popular tradition holds him, as Nimrod portrayed him, a whip of
+unrivalled skill. That there were such men is perfectly true;[1] but
+not every stage coachman was an expert: not all were skilful or even
+careful, and not all were civil: and if, as Nimrod says, they could
+drive as well when drunk as when sober, the cold light of contemporary
+record shows that there was ample room for improvement. Take the
+following:--On the 18th of May 1808 the coachman of the Portsmouth
+coach to London was intoxicated, and "when he came to the foot of the
+hill on Wimbledon Common, instead of keeping straight on turned to the
+left and found himself in Putney Lane, where turning the corner of Mr.
+Kensington's wall in order to get again into the road to Wandsworth,
+the coach was overturned." He appears to have driven on to the bank by
+the roadside. The ten outside passengers were all more or less hurt,
+one dying from her injuries, and the coachman himself had both legs
+broken. Accidents due to reckless driving and racing were very common,
+despite the law[2] of 1790 which made a coachman who, by furious
+driving or careless, overturned his coach, liable to a fine not over
+five pounds. The following is typical:--
+
+'Last night occurred one of those dreadful catastrophes, the result
+of driving opposition coaches, which has so stunned the country with
+horror that sober people for a time will not hazard their lives in
+these vehicles of fury and madness.
+
+'Two coaches that run daily from Hinckley to Leicester had set out
+together. The first having descended the hill leading to Leicester was
+obliged to stop to repair the harness. The other coachman saw the
+accident and seized the moment to give his antagonist the _go by_,
+flogging the horses into a gallop down the hill. The horses contrived
+to keep on their legs, but took fright at something on the road, and
+became so unmanageable in the hands of a drunken coachman, that in
+their sweep to avoid the object of their alarm, the driver could not
+recover them so as to clear the post of the turnpike gate at the bottom
+of the hill. The velocity was so great that the coach was split in two;
+three persons were dashed to pieces and instantly killed, two others
+survived but a few hours in the greatest agony; four were conveyed
+away for surgical aid with fractured limbs, and two in the dickey were
+thrown with that part of the coach to a considerable distance, and
+not much hurt as they fell on a hedge. The coachman fell a victim to
+his fury and madness. It is time the Magistrates put a stop to these
+outrageous proceedings that have existed too long in this part of the
+country.' (_St. James's Chronicle_, 15th July 1815).
+
+The frequency of upsets is suggested by a letter which appeared in
+the papers in 1785. The writer, who signs himself 'A Sufferer,' begs
+coach proprietors to direct their servants, when the coach has been
+overturned, 'not to drag the passengers out at the window, but to
+replace the coach on its wheels first, provided it can be accomplished
+with the strength they have with them.'
+
+After coaches began to carry the mails, accidents grew more numerous.
+We can trace many to the greater speed maintained, others to defective
+workmanship which resulted in broken axles or lost wheels, many to
+top-heaviness, and not a few to carelessness. The short stage drivers,
+on the whole, were the worst offenders. For sheer recklessness this
+would be hard to beat:--
+
+'During the dense fog on Wednesday last, as a Woolwich coach full of
+inside and outside passengers was driving at a furious rate, just
+after it had passed the Six Bells on its way to town, the coachman
+ran against a heavy country cart. The stage was upset, and those on
+the roof were pitched violently against an empty coal waggon; two of
+them fell on the shafts, one of whom had a shoulder badly dislocated;
+the other had his jawbone broken, with the loss of his front teeth. A
+Greenwich pensioner, with a wooden leg, had an arm broken, and
+some contusions on the head.' (_Bell's Life_, 15th December 1882).
+
+It would be easy to compile a list of accidents due to causes
+unforseen, each one, illustrating a different danger of the road. Here
+are a few:--
+
+'Tuesday afternoon, as one of the Brighton stages was leaving London
+at a rapid pace, the pole broke in Lambeth, and the coach was upset.
+Several passengers had limbs broken and others were injured.' (_Bell's
+Life_, 25th August 1822).
+
+'A fatal accident befel the Woolwich Tally Ho opposition stage on
+Tuesday. Coming down the hill from the Green Man the horses became
+restive, the coachman lost his command, and immediately the whole set
+off at full speed. In turning a corner the coach upset, being heavily
+laden outside. Out of sixteen persons only one escaped without a leg
+or arm broken, and four are not expected to survive. The coach was
+literally dashed to pieces. The inside passengers were more lacerated
+than those outside, owing to the coach being shattered to pieces and
+their being dragged along the road for fifty yards. But little hopes
+are entertained of a Major M'Leod--a very fine young man; not a vestige
+of his face is left except his eyes.' (_Bell's Life_, 22nd September
+1822).
+
+'A fatal accident happened to Gamble, coachman of the Yeovil mail,
+on Wednesday, caused by the leaders shying at an old oak tree. The
+coachman was killed on the spot, and the guard escaped with bruises.
+The horses started off and galloped into Andover at the rate of 20
+miles an hour. The single inside passenger was not aware of anything
+amiss until two gentlemen, who saw the horses going at a furious rate
+without a driver, succeeded in stopping them just as they were turning
+into the George gateway.' (_Times_, 21st February 1838).
+
+Coachmen and guards were apt to leave too much to the honour of the
+horses when stopping, and it was not at all uncommon for the team to
+start on its journey with nobody on the box. An old coachman told Lord
+Algernon St. Maur that on one night's drive he met two coaches without
+any driver! In 1806 (46 Geo. III., c. 36) it was made an offence
+punishable by fine to leave the team without a proper person in charge
+while the coach stopped.
+
+Organised races between public coaches were very popular: the coachmen
+did not spare the horses on these occasions. This race took place in
+1808:--
+
+'On Sunday, August 7th, a coach called the "Patriot," belonging to the
+master of the "Bell," Leicester, drawn by four horses, started against
+another coach called the "Defiance," from Leicester to Nottingham, a
+distance of 26 miles, both coaches changing horses at Loughborough.
+Thousands of people from all parts assembled to witness the event, and
+bets to a considerable amount were depending. Both coaches started
+exactly at 8 o'clock, and after the severest contest ever remembered,
+the "Patriot" arrived at Nottingham first by two minutes only,
+performing the distance of 26 miles in 2 hrs. 10 mins., carrying twelve
+passengers.'
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  _Mail Coaches Racing:
+
+  Something Wrong with the
+  Opposition Coach
+
+  Painting by G. D. Armour._]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Mishaps were so frequent and productive of so many fatalities, to say
+nothing of broken limbs, that at last general outcry arose for more
+stringent repressive measures: and in 1820 a law (1 Geo. IV., c. 4)
+was passed, making coachmen who might be guilty of 'wanton or furious
+driving or racing' liable to imprisonment as well as to fine, even
+though their proceedings were not brought to a close by overturning
+the coach. The new law did not make an end of accidents: on the whole
+there were fewer as the result of racing, but the records of time bear
+ample witness to lack of ordinary caution.
+
+For many years Macadam and Telford had been devoting their ingenuity to
+the task of solving the secret of road-making; it was not until 1818
+that the Macadam system was finally approved and adopted. Then the
+work of remaking the roads of the kingdom was taken in hand, and the
+new highways, when constructed, ushered in the brief 'golden age' of
+coaching--say 1825 to 1838, the mails having been transferred to the
+railways in the latter year.
+
+Nimrod's famous essay, written in 1835, shows in convincing fashion the
+difference between coaching in the olden days and at its best:--
+
+'May we be permitted, since we have mentioned the _Arabian Nights_, to
+make a little demand on our readers' fancy, and suppose it possible
+that a worthy old gentleman of this said year--1742--had fallen
+comfortably asleep _à la Dodswell_, and never awoke till Monday morning
+in Piccadilly? "What coach, your honour?" says a ruffianly-looking
+fellow, much like what he might have been had he lived a hundred years
+back. "I wish to go home to Exeter," replies the old gentleman, mildly.
+"Just in time, your honour, here she comes--them there grey horses;
+where's your luggage?" "Don't be in a hurry," observed the stranger;
+"that's a gentleman's carriage." "It ain't! I tell you," says the
+cad; "it's the Comet, and you must be as quick as lightning." _Nolens
+volens_, the remonstrating old gentleman is shoved into the Comet, by
+a cad at each elbow, having been three times assured his luggage is in
+the hind boot, and twice three times denied having ocular demonstration
+of the fact.
+
+'However, he is now seated; and "What _gentleman_ is going to drive
+us?" is his first question to his fellow-passengers. "He is no
+gentleman, sir," says a person who sits opposite to him, and who
+happens to be a proprietor of the coach. "He has been on the Comet
+ever since she started, and is a very steady young man." "Pardon my
+ignorance," replies the regenerated; "from the cleanliness of his
+person, the neatness of his apparel, and the language he made use of, I
+mistook him for some enthusiastic bachelor of arts, wishing to become
+a charioteer after the manner of the illustrious ancients."[3] "You
+must have been long in foreign parts, sir," observes the proprietor.
+In five minutes, or less, after the parley commenced, the wheels went
+round, and in another five the coach arrived at Hyde Park gate; but
+long before it got there, the worthy gentleman of 1742 (set down by his
+fellow-travellers for either a little cracked or an emigrant from the
+backwoods of America) exclaimed, "What! off the stones already?" "You
+have never been on the stones," observes his neighbour on his right;
+"no stones in London now, sir."[4]
+
+'In five minutes under the hour the Comet arrives at Hounslow, to
+the great delight of our friend, who by this time waxed hungry,
+not having broken his fast before starting. "Just fifty-five
+minutes and thirty-seven seconds," says he, "from the time we left
+London!--wonderful travelling, gentlemen, to be sure, but much too fast
+to be safe. However, thank heaven, we are arrived at a good-looking
+house; and now, _waiter_, I hope you have got breakf----" Before the
+last syllable, however, of the word could be pronounced, the worthy
+old gentleman's head struck the back of the coach by a jerk, which he
+could not account for (the fact was, three of the four fresh horses
+were bolters), and the waiter, the inn, and indeed Hounslow itself
+(_terraeque urbesque recedunt_) disappeared in the twinkling of an eye.
+Never did such a succession of doors, windows, and window-shutters pass
+so quickly in his review before--and he hoped they might never do so
+again. Recovering, however, a little from his surprise--"My dear sir,"
+said he, "you told me we were to change horses at Hounslow? Surely they
+are not so inhuman as to drive these poor animals another stage at this
+unmerciful rate!" "Change horses, sir!" says the proprietor; "why, we
+changed them whilst you were putting on your spectacles, and looking
+at your watch. Only one minute allowed for it at Hounslow, and it is
+often done in fifty seconds by those nimble-fingered horse-keepers."
+"You astonish me--but really I do not like to go so fast." "Oh, sir!
+we always spring them over these six miles. It is what we call _the
+hospital ground_." This alarming phrase is presently interpreted: it
+intimates that horses whose "backs are getting down instead of up in
+their work"--some "that won't hold an ounce down hill, or draw an
+ounce up"--others "that kick over the pole one day and over the bars
+the next"--in short, all the reprobates, styled in the road slang
+_bo-kickers_, are sent to work these six miles, because _here_ they
+have nothing to do but gallop--not a pebble as big as a nutmeg on the
+road; and so even, that it would not disturb the equilibrium of a
+spirit-level.
+
+'The coach, however, goes faster and faster over the _hospital ground_,
+as the bo-kickers feel their legs and the collars get warm to their
+shoulders; and having ten outsides, the luggage of the said ten, and a
+few extra packages besides on the roof, she rolls rather more than is
+pleasant, although the centre of gravity is pretty well kept down by
+four not slender insides, two well-laden boots, and three huge trunks
+in the slide. The gentleman of the last century, however, becomes
+alarmed--is sure the horses are running away with the coach--declares
+he perceives by the shadow that there is nobody on the box, and can see
+the reins dangling about the horses' heels. He attempts to look out
+of the window, but his fellow-traveller dissuades him from doing so:
+"You may get a shot in your eye from the wheel. Keep your head in the
+coach, it's all right, depend on 't. We always spring 'em over this
+stage." Persuasion is useless; for the horses increase their speed and
+the worthy old gentleman looks out. But what does he see? Death and
+destruction before his eyes? No: to his surprise he finds the coachman
+firm at his post, and in the act of taking a pinch of snuff from the
+gentleman who sits beside him on the _bench_, his horses going at the
+rate of a mile in three minutes at the time. "But suppose anything
+should break, or a linchpin should give way and let a wheel loose?" is
+the next appeal to the communicative but not very consoling proprietor.
+"Nothing _can_ break, sir," is the reply; "all of the very best stuff;
+axletrees of the best K.Q. iron, faggotted edgeways, well bedded in
+the timbers; and as for linchpins, we have not one about the coach. We
+use the best patent boxes that are manufactured. In short, sir, you
+are as safe in it as if you were in your bed." "Bless me," exclaims
+the old man, "what improvements! And the roads!!!" "They are at
+perfection, sir," says the proprietor. "No horse walks a yard in this
+coach between London and Exeter--all trotting ground now." "A little
+_galloping_ ground, I fear," whispers the senior to himself! "But who
+has effected all this improvement in your paving?" "An American of the
+name of Macadam,"[5] was the reply, "but coachmen call him the Colossus
+of Roads. Great things have likewise been done in cutting through
+hills and altering the course of roads: and it is no uncommon thing
+now-a-days to see four horses trotting away merrily down hill on that
+very ground where they formerly were seen walking up hill."
+
+'"And pray, my good sir, what sort of horses may you have over the next
+stage?" "Oh, sir, no more bo-kickers. It is hilly and severe ground,
+and requires cattle strong and staid. You'll see four as fine horses
+put to the coach at Staines as you ever saw in a nobleman's carriage in
+your life." "Then we shall have no more galloping--no more springing
+them as you term it?" "Not quite so fast over the next ground," replied
+the proprietor; "but he will make good play over some part of it: for
+example, when he gets three parts down a hill he lets them loose, and
+cheats them out of half the one they have to ascend from the bottom
+of it. In short, they are half-way up it before a horse touches his
+collar; and we _must_ take every advantage with such a fast coach as
+this, and one that loads so well, or we should never keep our time.
+We are now to a minute; in fact the country people no longer look at
+the _sun_ when they want to set their clocks--they look only to the
+_Comet_. But, depend upon it, you are quite safe; we have nothing but
+first-rate artists on this coach." "Artist! artist!" grumbles the old
+gentleman, "we had no such term as that."
+
+'"I should like to see this _artist_ change horses at the next stage,"
+resumes our ancient; "for at the last it had the appearance of
+magic--'Presto, Jack, and begone!'" "By all means; you will be much
+gratified. It is done with a quickness and ease almost incredible to
+anyone who has only read or heard of it; not a buckle or a rein is
+touched twice, and still all is made secure; but use becomes second
+nature with us. Even in _my_ younger days it was always half an hour's
+work--sometimes more. There was--'Now, ladies and gentlemen, what
+would you like to take? There's plenty of time, while the horses are
+changing, for tea, coffee, or supper; and the coachman will wait for
+you--won't you, Mr. Smith?' Then Mr. Smith himself was in no hurry; he
+had a lamb about his coach for one butcher in the town, and perhaps
+half a calf for another, a barrel of oysters for the lawyer, and a
+basket of game for the parson, _all on his own account_. In short, the
+best wheel of the coach was his, and he could not be otherwise than
+accommodating."
+
+'The coach arrives at Staines, and the ancient gentleman puts his
+intentions into effect, though he was near being again too late; for
+by the time he could extract his hat from the netting that suspended
+it over his head, the leaders had been taken from their bars, and
+were walking up the yard towards their stables. On perceiving a fine
+thorough-bred horse led toward the coach with a twitch fastened tightly
+to his nose, he exclaimed, "Holloa, Mr. Horse-keeper! You are going
+to put an unruly horse in the coach." "What! this here 'oss?" growls
+the man; "the quietest hanimal alive, sir!" as he shoves him to the
+near side of the pole. At this moment, however, the coachman is heard
+to say in somewhat of an undertone, "Mind what you are about, Bob;
+don't let him touch the roller-bolt." In thirty seconds more they are
+off--"the staid and steady team," so styled by the proprietor of the
+coach. "LET 'EM GO! and take care of yourselves," says the artist, so
+soon as he is firmly seated upon his box; and this is the way they
+start. The near leader rears right on end; and if the rein had not been
+yielded to him at the instant, he would have fallen backwards on the
+head of the pole. The moment the twitch was taken from the nose of the
+thorough-bred near-wheeler, he drew himself back to the extent of his
+pole-chain--his forelegs stretched out before him--and then, like a
+lion loosened from his toil, made a snatch at the coach that would have
+broken two pairs of traces of 1742. A steady and good-whipped horse,
+however, his partner, started the coach himself, with a gentle touch of
+the thong, and away they went off together. But the thorough-bred was
+very far from being comfortable; it was in vain that the coachman tried
+to soothe him with his voice, or stroked him with the crop of his whip.
+He drew three parts of the coach, and cantered for the first mile, and
+when he did settle down to his trot, his snorting could be heard by the
+passengers, being as much as to say, "I was not born to be a slave." In
+fact, as the proprietor now observed, "he had been a fair plate horse
+in his time, but his temper was always queer."
+
+'After the first shock was over, the Conservative of the eighteenth
+century felt comfortable. The pace was considerably slower than it had
+been over the last stage, but he was unconscious of the reason for
+its being diminished. It was to accommodate the queer temper of the
+race-horse,[6] who, if he had not been humoured at starting, would
+never have settled down to his trot, but have ruffled all the rest
+of the team. He was also surprised, if not pleased, at the quick rate
+at which they were ascending hills which, in his time, he should have
+been asked by the coachman to have walked up--but his pleasure was
+short-lived; the third hill they descended produced a return of his
+agony. This was what is termed on the road a long fall of ground, and
+the coach rather pressed upon the horses. The temper of the race-horse
+became exhausted: breaking into a canter, he was of little use as a
+wheeler, and there was then nothing for it but a gallop. The leaders
+only wanted the signal; and the point of the thong being thrown
+lightly over their backs, they were off like an arrow out of a bow:
+but the rocking of the coach was awful, and more particularly so to
+the passengers on the roof. Nevertheless, she was not in danger: the
+master-hand of the artist kept her in a direct line; and meeting the
+opposing ground, she steadied, and all was right. The newly-awakened
+gentleman, however, begins to grumble again. "Pray, my good sir," says
+he anxiously, "do use your authority over your coachman, and _insist_
+upon his putting the drag-chain on the wheel when descending the next
+hill." "I have no such authority," replies the proprietor. "It is
+true, we are now drawn by my horses, but I cannot interfere with the
+driving of them." "But is he not your servant?" "He is, sir; but I
+contract to work the coach so many miles in so many hours, and he
+engages to drive it, and each is subject to a fine if the time be not
+kept on the road. On so fast a coach as this every advantage must be
+taken; and if we were to drag down such hills as these, we should never
+reach Exeter to-day."
+
+'Our friend, however, will have no more of it. He quits the coach at
+Bagshot, congratulating himself on the safety of his limbs. Yet he
+takes one more peep at the change, which is done with the same despatch
+as before; three greys and a pie-bald replacing three chestnuts and a
+bay--the harness beautifully clean, and the ornaments bright as the
+sun. Not a word is spoken by the passengers, who merely look their
+admiration; but the laconic address of the coachman is not lost on
+the bystanders. "Put the bay mare near wheel this evening, and the
+stallion _up to the cheek_," said he to his horse-keeper as he placed
+his right foot on the roller-bolt--_i.e._ the last step but one to the
+box. "How is Paddy's leg?" "It's all right, sir," replied the
+horse-keeper. "Let 'em go, then," quoth the _artist_, "and take care
+of yourselves."
+
+'The worthy old gentleman is now shown into a room, and after warming
+his hands at the fire, rings the bell for the waiter. A well-dressed
+person appears, whom he of course takes for the landlord. "Pray, sir,"
+says he, "have you any _slow_ coach down this road to-day?" "Why,
+yes, sir," replies John; "we shall have the Regulator down in an
+hour." "Just right," said our friend; "it will enable me to break my
+fast, which I have not done to-day." "Oh, sir," observes John, "these
+here fast _drags_ be the ruin of us." 'Tis all hurry scurry, and no
+gentleman has time to have nothing on the road. "What will you take,
+sir? Mutton-chops, veal-cutlets, beef-steaks, or a fowl (to kill?)"
+
+'At the appointed time, the Regulator appears at the door. It is a
+strong, well-built drag, painted what is called chocolate colour,
+bedaubed all over with gilt letters--a bull's head on the doors, a
+Saracen's head on the hind boot, and drawn by four strapping horses;
+but it wants the neatness of the other. The passengers may be, by a
+shade or two, of a lower order than those who had gone forward with
+the Comet; nor, perhaps, is the coachman quite so refined as the one
+we have just taken leave of. He has not the neat white hat, the clean
+doeskin gloves, the well-cut trousers, and dapper frock; but still his
+appearance is respectable, and perhaps, in the eyes of many, more in
+character with his calling. Neither has he the agility of the artist
+on the Comet, for he is nearly double his size; but he is a strong
+powerful man, and might be called a pattern card of the heavy coachman
+of the present day--in other words, of a man who drives a coach which
+carries sixteen passengers instead of fourteen, and is rated at eight
+miles an hour instead of ten. "What room in the Regulator?" says our
+friend to the waiter, as he comes to announce its arrival. "Full
+inside, sir, and in front; but you'll have the gammon board all to
+yourself, and your luggage is in the hind boot." "Gammon board! Pray,
+what's that? Do you not mean the basket?"[7] "Oh no, sir," says John,
+smiling; "no such thing on the road now. It is the hind-dickey, as some
+call it; where you'll be as comfortable as possible, and can sit with
+your back or your face to the coach, or _both_, if you like." "Ah, ah,"
+continues the old gentleman; "something new again, I presume." However,
+the mystery is cleared up; the ladder is reared to the hind wheel and
+the gentleman safely seated on the gammon board.
+
+'Before ascending to his place our friend has cast his eye on the team
+that is about to convey him to Hartford Bridge, the next stage on the
+great western road, and he perceives it to be of a different stamp from
+that which he had seen taken from the coach at Bagshot. It consisted
+of four moderate-sized horses, full of power, and still fuller of
+condition, but with a fair sprinkling of blood; in short, the eye of
+a judge would have discovered something about them not very unlike
+galloping. "All right!" cried the guard, taking his key-bugle[8] in his
+hand; and they proceeded up the village, at a steady pace, to the tune
+of "Scots wha hae wi' Wallace bled," and continued at that pace for
+the first five miles. "_I am landed_," thinks our friend to himself.
+Unluckily, however, for the humane and cautious old gentleman, even
+the Regulator was about to show tricks. Although what now is called a
+slow coach, she is timed at eight miles in the hour through a great
+extent of country, and must, of course, make play where she can, being
+strongly opposed by hills lower down the country, trifling as these
+hills are, no doubt, to what they once were. The Regulator, moreover,
+loads well, not only with passengers, but with luggage; and the last
+five miles of this stage, called the Bridge Flat, have the reputation
+of being the best five miles for a coach to be found at this time in
+England. The ground is firm; the surface undulating, and therefore
+favourable to draught; always dry, not a shrub being near it; nor is
+there a stone upon it much larger than a marble. These advantages,
+then, are not lost to the Regulator, or made use of without sore
+discomposure to the solitary tenant of her gammon board.
+
+'Any one that has looked into books will very readily account for the
+lateral motion, or rocking, as it is termed, of a coach, being greatest
+at the greatest distance from the horses (as the tail of a paper kite
+is in motion whilst the body remains at rest); and more especially
+when laden as this coach was--the greater part of the weight being
+forward. The situation of our friend, then, was once more deplorable.
+The Regulator takes but twenty-three minutes for these celebrated five
+miles, which cannot be done without "springing the cattle" now and
+then; and it was in one of the very best of their gallops of that day,
+that they were met by the coachman of the Comet, who was returning with
+his up-coach. When coming out of rival yards, coachmen never fail to
+cast an eye to the loading of their opponents on the road, and now that
+of the natty artist of the Comet experienced a high treat. He had a
+full view of his quondam passenger, and thus described his situation.
+
+'He was seated with his back to the horses--his teeth set grim as
+death--his eyes cast down towards the ground, thinking the less he
+saw of his danger the better. There was what is called a top-heavy
+load--perhaps a ton of luggage on the roof, and it may be not _quite_
+in obedience to the Act of Parliament standard.[9] There were also
+two horses at wheel, whose strides were of rather unequal length, and
+this operated powerfully on the coach. In short, the lurches of the
+Regulator were awful at the moment of the Comet meeting her. A tyro in
+mechanics would have exclaimed, "The centre of gravity must be lost,
+the centrifugal force will have the better of it--_over she must go_!"
+
+'The centre of gravity having been preserved, the coach arrived safe at
+Hartford Bridge; but the old gentleman has again had enough of it. "I
+will walk into Devonshire," said he, as he descended from his perilous
+exaltation. "What did that rascally waiter mean by telling me this was
+a slow coach? and moreover, look at the luggage on the roof!" "Only
+regulation height, sir," says the coachman; "we aren't allowed to have
+it an inch higher; sorry we can't please you, sir, but we will try and
+make room for you in front." "_Fronti nulla fides_," mutters the worthy
+to himself, as he walks tremblingly into the house--adding, "I shall
+not give this fellow a shilling; he is dangerous."
+
+'The Regulator being off, the waiter is again applied to. "What do
+you charge per mile posting?" "One and sixpence, sir." "Bless me!
+just double! Let me see--two hundred miles, at two shillings per
+mile, postboys, turnpikes, etc., £20. This will never do. Have you
+no coach that does not carry luggage on the top?" "Oh yes, sir,"
+replies the waiter, "we shall have one to-night that is not allowed
+to carry a band-box on the roof."[10] "That's the coach for me; pray
+what do you call it?" "The Quicksilver mail, sir; one of the best
+out of London--Jack White and Tom Brown, picked coachmen, over this
+ground--Jack White down to-night." "Guarded and lighted?" "Both, sir;
+blunderbuss and pistols in the sword-case;[11] a lamp each side the
+coach, and one under the foot-board--see to pick up a pin the darkest
+night of the year." "Very fast?" "Oh no, sir, _just keeps time, and
+that's all_." "That's the coach for me, then," repeats our hero; "and
+I am sure I shall feel at my ease in it. I suppose it is what used to
+be called the Old Mercury."
+
+'Unfortunately, the Devonport (commonly called the Quicksilver) mail is
+half a mile in the hour faster than most in England, and is, indeed,
+one of the miracles of the road. Let us then picture to ourselves
+our anti-reformer snugly seated in this mail, on a pitch-dark night
+in November. It is true she has no luggage on the roof, nor much to
+incommode her elsewhere; but she is a mile in the hour faster than
+the Comet, at least three miles quicker than the Regulator; and she
+performs more than half her journey by lamplight. It is needless to
+say, then, our senior soon finds out his mistake; but there is no
+remedy at hand, for it is the dead of the night, and all the inns are
+shut up. He must proceed, or be left behind in a stable. The climax of
+his misfortunes then approaches.
+
+'Nature being exhausted, sleep comes to his aid, and he awakes on a
+stage which is called the fastest on the journey--four miles of ground,
+and twelve minutes the time! The old gentleman starts from his seat,
+having dreamed the horses were running away with the coach, and so,
+no doubt, they might be. He is determined to convince himself of the
+fact, though the passengers assure him "all's right." "Don't put your
+head out of the window," says one of them, "you will lose your hat to
+a certainty": but advice is seldom listened to by a terrified man,
+and next moment a stentorian voice is heard, crying, "Stop, coachman,
+stop--I have lost my hat and wig!" The coachman hears him not--and
+in another second the broad wheels of a road waggon have for ever
+demolished the lost headgear.'
+
+That was the Road at its best: the poetic side we have in mind when we
+speak of the good old days of coaching. The following passages refer
+equally to the 'golden age'; their very baldness has an eloquence
+of its own. It is true that the winter of 1836-37 is conspicuous in
+history for the exceptionally heavy snowfall; but as Nimrod has shown
+coaching at its best, there is no injustice in presenting these
+glimpses of coach travel at its worst:--
+
+'Tabor, guard of the Devonport, who left London with the mail on Sunday
+and returned on Wednesday, reports that a mile and a half from Amesbury
+they got completely blocked. The leaders dropped down, but rose again;
+the near wheel-horse fell and could not be got up. The coachman
+procured a pair of post horses, but they could only get the wheel-horse
+out of the snow; it was impossible to get him on his legs. Four more
+post horses and four waggon horses were requisitioned, and with their
+assistance the mail was extricated by daylight. Then they travelled
+with the six post horses across the Downs. They were again blocked near
+Mere. About a hundred men were at this time employed a little distance
+off in digging out the Subscription and Defiance coaches. After being
+extricated by some labourers they resumed their progress from Mere with
+four fresh mail-horses and two posters. Between Ilchester and Ilminster
+the post horse leaders fell in a snow drift, and were run upon by the
+mail leaders.' (_Bell's Life_, January 1837).
+
+'The Estafette coach from Manchester on Sunday morning did not reach
+London until Tuesday night, having been dug out of the snow twelve
+times. It was the first coach from Manchester of the same day that
+arrived in town. The guard attributes his success to the exertions of
+four sailors, outside passengers, who lent a hand at every casualty.'
+
+'A gentleman who left Sheffield by the Hope coach of Sunday week
+reports that the coach did not complete its journey until Saturday
+afternoon. Between Nottingham and Mansfield, close to the Forest, they
+came upon three coaches blocked in the snow, which was lying 9 feet
+deep. The Hope left Mansfield with eight horses and was driven into
+Nottingham with ten. They picked up a poor boy nearly perished with
+cold. The boy was got by a gentleman jumping down while the coach was
+in motion, for the coachman declared that if he came to a dead stop he
+would not be able to get the wheels in motion again.' (_Bell's Life_,
+8th January 1837).
+
+Highway robbery was still practised at this time, but the armed
+horseman with crape mask and pistols had gone out of fashion, and
+thefts were accomplished by craft. 'The Stirling mail has been
+robbed of notes to the value of £13,000 in the following manner:--A
+man took his seat at Stirling as an outside passenger. The mail was
+followed closely from Stirling by a gig containing two men. When the
+mail arrived at Kirkliston the guard stopped to take out the customary
+bags to leave there. The gig also stopped there, and the two men in it
+went into the house. The guard had left the mail box open, in which
+the parcels were, and the outside passenger easily abstracted the one
+containing the notes. He then left the coach. The gig with the two men
+took the Queensferry Road. The parcels were not missed until the mail
+reached Edinburgh. On the Queensferry Road the two men were joined by
+their accomplice, the outside passenger. They left the gig and took a
+post chaise for Edinburgh. They discharged the chaise before entering
+the city and gave the post-boy £3.' (_Bell's Life_, 2nd January 1825).
+
+Great improvements in all matters connected with coaching were made
+during the first two decades of the nineteenth century: these were due
+to the rage for driving that prevailed about this time. The King was
+deeply interested in coaching, was himself no mean whip, and he set the
+fashion. It did not last very long. Nimrod, writing in 1835, remarks
+that about 1825 'thirty to forty four-in-hand equipages were constantly
+to be seen about town: _one_ is stared at now.'
+
+The driving clubs held 'meets' in George the Third's time much as
+they do at present, but the vehicles used were 'barouche landaus,'
+and the drive taken was much longer than that in vogue to-day.
+Bedfont beyond Hounslow, and Windsor were favourite places whither
+the coaches--'barouche landaus'--drove in procession to dine. Very
+particular attention was paid to dress. This was the costume in which
+members of the Whip Club, founded in 1808 as a rival to the Benson,
+mounted their boxes on 6th June 1808, in Park Lane, to drive to
+Harrow:--
+
+'A light, drab-colour cloth coat made full, single breast with three
+tier of pockets, the skirt reaching to the ancles; a mother of pearl
+button the size of a crown piece; waistcoat blue and yellow stripe,
+each stripe an inch in depth; small clothes corded silk plush made to
+button over the calf of the leg, with sixteen strings and rosettes to
+each knee. The boots very short and finished with very broad straps
+which hang over the tops and down to the ancle. A hat three inches and
+a half deep in the crown only, and the same depth in the brim exactly.
+Each wore a large bouquet at the breast, thus resembling the coachmen
+of our nobility who, on His Majesty's birthday, appear in that respect
+so peculiarly distinguished.'[12]
+
+Grimaldi the clown, then at the zenith of his fame, burlesqued this
+get-up so mercilessly that a less conspicuous garb was adopted.
+
+The fifteen barouche landaus which turned out on this occasion, driven
+by 'men of known skill in the science of charioteering,' were well
+calculated to set off the somewhat conspicuous attire of the members:
+they were 'Yellow-bodied carriages with whip springs and dickey boxes;
+cattle of a bright bay colour with silver plate ornaments on the
+harness and rosettes to the ears.'
+
+The meets of the driving clubs appear to have roused a spirit of
+ribaldry in unregenerate youth. One day in March 1809 a young Etonian
+made his appearance in a low phaeton with a four-in-hand of donkeys,
+with which he brought up the rear of the procession as it drove round
+Grosvenor and Berkeley Squares.
+
+_The_ Driving Club was the Benson, which had been founded in 1807.
+Sir Henry Peyton was the last survivor of the 'noble, honourable, and
+respectable' drivers who composed it. Thackeray described him in the
+last of his papers on _The Four Georges_ as he appeared driving the
+'one solitary four-in-hand' to be seen in the London parks. He was then
+(1851) very old, and attracted attention as much by his dress, which
+was of the fashion of 1825, as by his then unique turn-out.
+
+The Benson Club came to an end in 1853. The Whip Club, otherwise the
+Four Horse Club, came to an end in 1838. The Defiance Club, for members
+who had been 'lately permitted to retire' from the other two, was
+projected in 1809, but it does not appear to have come to anything.
+The Richmond Drag Club was founded in 1838, but it did not survive for
+many years; the members to the number of fifteen or sixteen used to
+meet at Lord Chesterfield's house. These were the principal clubs.
+
+Some of the amateur whips of a century ago were addicted to coach
+matches. Here is the account of such a race from the _Sporting
+Magazine_ of 1802:--
+
+'MAIL COACH MATCH.--On Thursday, May 20th, the London Mail, horsed
+by Mr. Laud, of the New London Inn, Exeter, with four beautiful grey
+horses, and driven by Mr. Cave Browne, of the Inniskilling Dragoons,
+started (at the sound of the bugle) from St. Sydwell's for a bet
+of Five Hundred Guineas against the Plymouth Mail, horsed by Mr.
+Phillipps, of the Hotel, with four capital blacks, and driven by Mr.
+Chichester, of Arlington House, which got the mail first to the Post
+Office in Honiton. The bet was won easy by Mr. Browne. A very great
+concourse of people assembled on this occasion.'
+
+In 1811 Mr. George Seward undertook to drive a four-in-hand fifteen
+miles in fifty minutes. He selected the road from Hyde Park Corner to
+Staines, and started at six in the morning. He failed to accomplish his
+undertaking, but only by three minutes twenty seconds.
+
+There was more originality about the competition arranged in May 1805
+between Mr. Charles Buxton, inventor of the bit known by his name and
+one of the founders of the Whip Club, and a horse-dealer:--
+
+'One of our most celebrated whips Charles Buxton, Esq., has concluded
+a bet of 500 Guineas with Mr. Thomas Hall, the dealer in horses. The
+object of the wager is to decide which of the two is the best driver of
+four unruly horses. The wager is to be decided by two friends of the
+parties, who are to pick out eight horses from Spencer's, Marsden's,
+and White's. Lords Barrymore and Cranley are chosen as the umpires. The
+horses selected are only to be those which have not been broken in. The
+friend of each charioteer is to pick the horses alternately until the
+number agreed on is selected. The parties are then to mount the box
+and proceed to decide the wager. The bettings already are said to be
+considerable. Neither the scene of action nor the day when the contest
+is to take place are yet determined on. Mr. Buxton is said to be so
+certain of success that he has offered to double the bet.'
+
+Though the law of 1820 made racing a criminal offence, the practice
+was one which could not be wholly put down, and on May-day the law was
+set at naught by popular consent, rival coaches on that day racing one
+another without disguise: the May-day race became an institution of
+the road, and seems to have been winked at by the authorities. Some
+wonderful records were made in these contests on the macadam. Thus, on
+1st May 1830, the Independent Tally Ho ran from London to Birmingham,
+109 miles, in 7 hours 39 minutes. It was not rare for a coach to
+perform its journey at a rate of fifteen miles an hour on May-day. We
+may compare this with the time made in the Leicester-Nottingham race of
+1808 mentioned on page 17.
+
+It is seventy years since the carriage of the mails was transferred
+from coach to railway train, and there are yet living men who can
+remember the last journeys of the mail-coaches, some carrying little
+flags at half-mast, some displaying a miniature coffin, emblematic
+of the death of a great institution. Yet the mail-coach survived
+until a much later date in some districts, where the line was slow to
+penetrate. Mr. S. A. Kinglake, in _Baily's Magazine_ of 1906, gave an
+account of the Oxford and Cheltenham coach, which only began to carry
+the mails in 1848, and made its last trip in 1862, when the opening of
+a new branch line ousted this lingerer on the roads.
+
+The interregnum between the last of the old coaches and the modern era
+was not a very long one: indeed, taking the country as a whole, and
+accepting the coach as subsidiary to the railway, the old and the new
+overlap. Modern road coaching dates from the later 'sixties, when the
+late Duke of Beaufort, with some others, started the Brighton coach.
+This was the first of several private ventures of the same kind: their
+primary object was to enable the owners to enjoy the pleasure of
+driving a team, and the financial side of the business was not much
+regarded. The subscription coach was a later development, with the
+same object in view, pleasure rather than money-making, and the large
+majority of the coaches which run from London to Brighton, St. Albans,
+Guildford, and other places within an easy day's journey are maintained
+by small syndicates of subscribers, who take turns on the box. American
+visitors patronise these vehicles extensively, and no doubt to their
+support may be traced Mr. Vanderbilt's venture on the Brighton road.
+
+The modern coach travels quite as fast as its predecessor when
+required: as witness James Selby's famous performance on 13th July
+1888. He left the White Horse Cellar at 10 A.M.; arrived at the Old
+Ship, Brighton, 1.56 P.M.; turned and reached town at 5.50; the journey
+out and home again being accomplished in 7 hours 50 minutes; part of
+the way between Earlswood and Horley he travelled at a rate of twenty
+miles an hour.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  _Modern Coaching:
+
+  In the Show Ring
+
+  Painting by G. D. Armour._]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Nor are modern horse-keepers less 'nimble fingered' than those of
+whom Nimrod wrote. At the International Horse Show of 1908 Miss
+Brocklebank's grooms won the Hon. Adam Beck's prize for 'Best coach and
+appointments and quickest change of teams': the change was accomplished
+in forty-eight seconds. During James Selby's Brighton drive horses were
+changed at Streatham in forty-seven seconds. The road coachmen of the
+present day do not aim at lightning changes of team: the work is done
+in leisurely fashion, and passengers enjoy the opportunity afforded
+them to get down for a few minutes.
+
+The Four-in-Hand Club, founded in 1856, for many years used to meet in
+the Park at quarter to five in the afternoon, but the hour was changed
+to half-past twelve in order to avoid the inconvenience inseparable
+from meeting at the time when carriages are most numerous.
+
+The Coaching Club was founded in 1870, and held its first meet at the
+Marble Arch in June the following year.
+
+SONG OF THE B.D.C.[13]
+
+    You ask me, Gents, to sing a song,
+    Don't think me too encroaching.
+    I won't detain you very long,
+    With one of mine on coaching.
+    No rivalry we have to fear,
+    Nor jealous need we be, Sir,
+    We all are friends who muster here,
+    And in the B.D.C. Sir.
+
+    Horace declares the Greeks of old
+    Were once a driving nation;
+    But Shakespeare says 'The World's a stage'--
+    A cutish observation.
+    The stage he meant, good easy man,
+    Was drawn by nine old Muses;
+    But the Mews for me is the B.D.C.,
+    And that's the stage I chooses.
+
+    I call this age the Iron Age
+    Of railways and pretension.
+    And coaching now is in a stage
+    Of horrible declension,
+    The day's gone by when on the fly
+    We roll'd to Alma Mater,
+    And jovial took the reins in hand
+    Of the Times or Regulator.
+
+    Those were the days when Peyton's grays
+    To Bedfont led the way, Sir,
+    And Villebois followed with his bays
+    In beautiful array, Sir.
+    Then Spicer, too, came next in view
+    To join the gay procession.
+    Oh! the dust we made--the cavalcade
+    Was neat beyond expression.
+
+    No turnpike saw a fancy team
+    More neat than Dolphin sported,
+    When o'er the stones with Charley Jones,
+    To Bedfont they resorted.
+    Few graced the box so much as Cox;
+    But there were none, I ween, Sir,
+    Who hold the reins 'twixt here and Staines
+    More slap up than the Dean, Sir.
+
+    Those are the men who foremost then
+    To coaching gave a tone, Sir,
+    And hold they will to coaching still,
+    Tho' here they stand alone, Sir--
+    Then drink to the coach, the B.D.C.,
+    Sir Henry and his team, Sir,
+    And may all be _blowed_ right off the road
+    Who wish to go by steam, Sir.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Robert Poynter drove the Lewes stage for thirty years without an
+accident.
+
+[2] 30 Geo. III., c. 36.
+
+[3] The old gentleman's conjecture was not far wrong. At this time,
+1835, it is true fewer men of good birth occupied the box than had
+been the case a few years before--if we rightly interpret Nimrod's
+own remarks on the point. When the box had been set on springs or
+made an integral part of the coach-body, when the roads had been
+made worthy of the name and fast work the rule, coach-driving became
+popular among men of social position. Some drove for pleasure, horsing
+the coaches themselves, others took up driving as a profession and
+made good incomes thereby. These gentlemen coachmen did much to raise
+the standard of conduct among the professionals of humble origin.
+Lord Algernon St. Maur (_Driving_, Badminton Library) says that Mr.
+Stevenson, who was driving the Brighton Age in 1830, was 'the great
+reformer who set a good example as regards punctuality, neatness, and
+sobriety.'
+
+[4] Until Macadam was adopted the streets in London were cobbled or
+paved.
+
+[5] John Loudon Macadam was a Scotsman by birth. In 1770, when fourteen
+years old, he was sent to the care of an uncle in New York, whence he
+did not return till he was twenty-six years of age; hence the mistake
+in describing him as 'an American.'
+
+[6] It was not unusual for retired race-horses to end their days 'on
+the road.' A notable instance is that of Mendoza by Javelin. Mendoza
+won eight races at Newmarket in his three seasons on the turf,
+1791-2-3; then the Duke of Leeds bought him as a hunter; and after a
+few seasons with hounds he made one of a team in the Catterick and
+Greta Bridge mail-coach. Mendoza was still at work in 1807, but had
+become blind.
+
+[7] The early coaches were equipped with a huge basket slung over the
+hind axle wherein passengers were carried at lower fares.
+
+[8] Only the mail-coach guard carried a horn; stage-coach guards used
+the key-bugle, and some were very clever performers on it.
+
+[9] 50 Geo. III., c. 48 came into operation in 1810. This enacted that
+on a four-horse coach baggage might be piled to a height of 2 feet. To
+encourage low-hung coaches this law allowed baggage to be piled to a
+height of 10 ft. 9 in. _from the ground_.
+
+[10] The conveyance of 'trunks, parcels, and other packages' on the
+roof of a mail-coach was prohibited in the Postmaster-General's
+circular to mail contractors of 29th June, 1807. As the mails increased
+it became impossible to enforce this regulation, and the bags were
+carried wherever they could be stowed. 'The Druid' says of the
+Edinburgh mail-coach: 'The heaviest night as regards correspondence was
+when the American mail had come in. On those occasions the bags have
+been known to weigh above 16 cwt. They were contained in sacks seven
+feet long and were laid in three tiers across the top, so high that no
+guard unless he were a Chang in stature could look over them ... and
+the waist (the seat behind the coachman) and the hind boot were filled
+as well.'
+
+[11] It must be remembered that the old gentleman speaks by the light
+of his knowledge of nearly a century earlier, when highway robbery was
+very common, and it was not usual for coaches to run at night. At the
+period to which Nimrod refers highwaymen had not entirely disappeared
+from the roads (William Rea was hanged for this offence, 4th July,
+1828), and not every stage-coach carried a guard. Mail-coaches, all
+of which carried guards, were, of course, unknown to Nimrod's old
+gentleman.
+
+[12] This refers to the 'mail-coach parade,' which was first held in
+1799 and for the last time in 1835. The coaches, to the number of about
+twenty-five, were either new or newly painted with the Royal Arms on
+the door, the stars of each of the four Orders of Knighthood on the
+upper panel, and the name of the town whither the coach ran on the
+small panel over each door. Coachmen and guards wore new uniforms and
+gentlemen used to lend their best teams--often also their coachmen,
+as appears from the passage quoted. A horseman rode behind each coach
+to make the procession longer. The 'meet' took place in Lincoln's Inn
+Fields and the coaches drove to St. James's, there turning to come back
+to the General Post Office, then in Lombard Street.
+
+[13] Benson Driving Club.
+
+
+
+
+TANDEM DRIVING
+
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  _Tandem
+
+  Painting by G. D. Armour._]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+It is said, but I must confess failure to trace authority for the
+statement, that tandem driving was invented as a convenient and
+sporting method of taking the hunter to the meet. History has not
+handed down to fame the name of the man who first hit upon the idea of
+driving tandem; it was in vogue over a century ago, and at Cambridge
+ranked as a grave offence: witness the following edict dated 10th March
+1807:--
+
+'WE, THE VICE-CHANCELLOR AND HEADS OF COLLEGES, DO HEREBY ORDER AND
+DECREE THAT IF ANY PERSON OR PERSONS _IN STATU PUPILLARI_ SHALL BE
+FOUND DRIVING ANY TANDEM AND SHALL BE DULY CONVICTED THEREOF BEFORE
+THE VICE-CHANCELLOR, SUCH PERSON OR PERSONS SO OFFENDING SHALL FOR THE
+FIRST OFFENCE BE SUSPENDED FROM TAKING HIS DEGREE FOR ONE WHOLE YEAR,
+OR BE RUSTICATED, ACCORDING TO THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE CASE; AND FOR
+THE SECOND OFFENCE BE LIABLE TO SUCH FURTHER PUNISHMENT AS IT MAY
+APPEAR TO DESERVE, OR BE EXPELLED THE UNIVERSITY.'
+
+Extravagantly high gigs were much in favour among the 'bloods' of the
+day, and these were often used for tandem driving, a purpose for which
+they were by no means unsuitable, always provided the road was fairly
+level.
+
+As a matter of course, when tandems became numerous and drivers clever
+in handling them, races against time came into fashion. Matches on the
+road, whether trotting in saddle or driving, were usually 'against
+time' for obvious reasons. On April 14th 1819 the famous whip, Mr.
+Buxton, backed himself to drive tandem without letting his horses break
+their trot, from Hounslow to Hare Hatch, distance twenty-four miles,
+in two hours. His horses, however, were not well matched, and 'broke'
+before they had gone six miles. As breaking involved the penalty
+of turning the equipage round and starting afresh, and breaks were
+frequent, Mr. Buxton occupied over an hour in going ten miles and gave
+up, forfeiting the hundred guineas he had staked on the task.
+
+On 19th May 1824 a match was thus recorded in the _Sporting Magazine_:--
+
+'Captain Swann undertook a tandem match from Ilford, seven miles over a
+part of Epping Forest. He engaged to drive 12 miles at a trot and to
+back his wheels if he broke into a gallop. This happened only once in
+the seventh mile, which he nevertheless completed in 33 minutes. On his
+return the pacing of the horses was a picture. The match was won fairly
+with two minutes and six seconds to spare.'
+
+A Mr. Houlston in the same year drove his tandem twelve miles on the
+Winchester Road in one minute thirty-nine seconds under the hour
+allowed. By this time tandem drivers had come to the reasonable
+conclusion that the turning penalty (proper enough in trotting matches,
+whether in shafts or saddle) was excessive for their sport, and
+'backing' had been substituted therefor. Any one who has had occasion
+to turn a tandem on the road without assistance will admit that the
+abolition was wise.
+
+Long journeys against time were sometimes undertaken. In 1824
+
+'Captain Bethel Ramsden undertook to drive tandem from Theale to
+London, 43 miles, in 3 hours and 40 minutes. The start took place at
+four o'clock in the morning, and in the first hour the captain did 12½
+miles to between Twyford and Hare Hatch. He did in the next hour 12
+miles and upwards, and got the horses' mouths cleaned at Slough. He
+had 5½ miles to do in the last forty minutes, and performed it easily
+with eleven minutes to spare.'
+
+The cult of the trotting horse stood high in those days when so much
+travelling was done in the saddle: there are innumerable records of
+trotters doing their fifteen and sixteen miles on the road within
+the hour, sometimes under very heavy weights. Mr. Charles Herbert's
+horse, in 1791, trotted 17 miles in 58 minutes 40 seconds on the
+Highgate Road, starting from St. Giles' Church. The road is by no
+means a level one, and the only advantage the horse had was the hour
+selected--between six and seven in the morning, when the traffic was
+not heavy.
+
+A famous whip of the 'thirties was Mr. Burke of Hereford--he was also
+an amateur pugilist of renown, but that does not concern us here. In
+June 1839 he made his thirty-fifth trotting match, whereby he undertook
+to drive tandem forty-five miles in three hours. The course was from
+the Staines end of Sinebury Common to the fifth milestone towards
+Hampton: he did it with four and a half minutes to spare. The horses
+used in this match were both extraordinary trotters: the wheeler,
+Tommy, had covered 20 miles in 1 hour 18 minutes two months earlier,
+and the leader, Gustavus, twenty-four years old, had done his 20 miles
+in 1 hour 14 minutes.
+
+Though not a tandem performance in the strict sense of the term, Mr.
+Thanes' feat on 12th July 1819 is worth mention. He undertook 'to drive
+three horses in a gig, tandem fashion, eleven miles within the hour
+on the trot, and to turn if either horse broke.' Fortunately none of
+the three did break, and he did the eleven miles, on the road near
+Maidenhead, with three minutes to spare.
+
+Tandem driving seems to have gone out of fashion to a certain extent
+about 1840, though some young men 'still delighted in it.' The
+re-establishment of the Tandem Club, soon after the close of the
+Crimean War, marked a revival which made itself felt at Cambridge;
+for on 22nd February 1866 the Senate passed another edict, this
+time forbidding livery-stable keepers to let out on hire tandems or
+four-in-hands to undergraduates. This was confirmed in 1870.
+
+
+
+
+      *      *      *      *      *      *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+  The illustrations which were plates in the book have been moved near
+  to the text they illustrate.
+
+  Footnotes in the Coaching chapter have been moved to the end of the
+  chapter.
+
+  This book contains inconsistent hyphenations. No spellings have been
+  changed, but apparent printers' errors have been corrected.
+
+  Changes that have been made are:
+
+  Footnote 11
+    "s peks"  changed to "speaks",
+    "robaery" changed to "robbery".
+
+  Page 33
+    Quotation mark added at start of "and take care of yourselves".
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44864 ***