Brighton and its Coaches. A history of the London and Brighton road. With some account of the provincial coaches that have run from Brighton ... With twenty illustrations from original water-colour drawings by J. & G. Temple, etc

Front matter

BRIGHTON AND ITS COACHES A HISTORY OF THE LONDON ANL BRIGHTON ROAD f BRIGHTON AND its COACHES A HISTORY OF THE LONDON AND BRIGHTON ROAD WITH SUME ACCOUNT OF THE PROVINCIAL COACHES THAT HAVE RUN FROM BRIGHTON BY WILLIAM C. A. BLEW, M.A. (Editor of Vynf.r's "Notitia Vf.nattca" and Radcliffe's "Noble Science of Fox-Hunting") WITH TWENTY ILLUSTRATIONS FROM ORIGINAL WATER-COLOUR DRAWINGS BY J. &** G. TEMPLE All Coloured by Hand LONDON JOHN C. N I M M O 14, KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND MDCCCXCIV TO STEWART FREEMAN, Esq. WHO HAS WELL AND WORTHILY CARRIED ON THE BEST TRADITIONS OF THE BRIGHTON ROAD Ubis JBeok is DeMcatefc IN MEMORY OF MANY PLEASANT JOURNEYS.

Preface

T^IFTY-TWO years have passed since the opening of the London and Brighton Railway caused the break-up of what was perhaps the best-found, the most popular, and the busiest coach-road out of London. He, therefore, who can remember even the last nicker of the expiring embers of the "Coaching Era" must have exceeded that uncertain period of life known as middle age ; while, if we would hear from living lips of the golden age of Brighton stage-coaching, as it was from, say, 1825, we must listen to an octogenarian. But these old-world coachmen, alas ! are growing fewer in number ; and their memories, once so amply stored with reminiscences which would now be priceless, from the standpoint of the coaching historian, are not quite so retentive as they once were. Moreover, these ancient artists are difficult to find ; and even they cannot convey one back to the earliest days of the Brighton road — that is to say, to the middle of the last century.

In venturing to put forth, therefore, some account of the Brighton road, so far as it has been possible to glean its history, I do not claim to do any more than give the dry bones of stage-coaching. It has been my good fortune to converse with more than one of those who drove on the Brighton road in its best days, and their sayings and experiences are incorporated in the following pages : they are, I venture to hope, that little leaven which may go some way towards leavening a whole lump of dry facts. vi l

PREFACE.

Still, it were useless to shut one's eyes to the fact that the table or, more correctly speaking, the box seat talk is absent ; nor can I say anything of coach ing of old from personal experience, my earliest recollection of the Brighton road dating from about 1857, when, as a small boy, I was taken on Clark's Age, which ran through Kingston, Dorking, and Horsham. Somewhat earlier I had travelled on a white coach with green wheels, which ran, I think, between Dover and Ramsgate ; and these two journeys awoke in me a love for stage-coaching, which at the present time shows no signs of abatement, even though the road is not. in many respects what it was ; but I am one of the many who have known nothing better. "Nimrod," the late Mr. Birch Reynardson, the late Captain Haworth, Lord W. Lennox, Captain Malet, Mr. Stanley Harris ("An Old Stager"), Colonel Cor bett, and the contributors to the Badminton Library, have given us much that is of interest in connection with stage-coaching ; but these gentlemen have one and all confined themselves almost entirely to writing about the history of their own time ; and, so far as I know, the present is the first attempt to sketch, in however incomplete a fashion, the history of any coach-road from the earliest times to the period of its decay.

In so saying, I am not unmindful of the chapter on "The Coaching Era" in Mr. J. G. Bishop's interesting work on "Brighton in the Olden Time," which embraces some of the main features of the history of the road ; but, as it forms one chapter only of the book, it was obviously impossible to deal with the subjectin extenso. I have apologised above for having little else to set before the reader than the dry bones of stage-coach history ; but the provision of this scantv fare is less mv fault than mv misfortune,

PREFACE.

IX for it has already been explained that many of those who could have thrown light upon the coaching of old have now crumbled to dust like the " machines " they once drove ; my material, therefore, has been almost exclusively drawn from old newspapers and magazines. The files of all the Sussex papers have been carefully searched page by page, from the date of their establish ment down to the time when it was no longer in the power of their respective editors to give coaching news. The Times, Morning Post, Public Advertiser, Morning Chronicle, and other journals, mentioned in the Index, have been laid under contribution ; and so have the Gentleman s Magazine , the Annual Register, and the Sporting Magazine, together with as many other books likely to give information as I have been able to discover.

In the British Museum I was able to find the files of the Sussex papers from 1S25 only; but the proprietors of the Sussex Advertiser very kindly per mitted me to have access to their back numbers ; Mr. Crunden of Brighton was good enough to lend me the two first volumes of the Brighton Herald; Mr. J. G. Bishop, its proprietor, with equal kindness, allowed me to ransack the remaining volumes ; and Mr. Towner, of the Brighton Gazette, permitted me to search the files of that journal. I must also acknowledge the assistance I have received in searching and compiling the Index from my friend Mr. Edward Penton. To these gentle men my best thanks are gratefully rendered. There has been some little doubt as to the best arrangement of the book. It would probably have been more readable had all minor details been dis carded, and had the more important matters been treated with a free hand under such headings as " Old Coaches," "New Coaches," "Fast Coaches," "Slow Coaches," "Accidents," "Mails," &c, without regard to chronological order. But there was a desire to

PREFACE.

X draw up a record of the Brighton road from the earliest times ; to show, if possible, how the business of stage-coaching grew ; how coaches became more numerous ; when they Mere accelerated ; and with what difficulties in the direction of bad weather, accidents, informations, &c, the callings of coach pro prietor and coachman were beset. In case the verdict should be that I have come to the ground between two stools, that I have missed the succinctness of a bare chronological record without having succeeded in writing a story to which any interest, attaches, I can only plead that a bushel or so of newspaper extracts is not the easiest material out of which to weave a narrative. I have not attempted anything in the shape of an itinerary. As in one form and another the places of interest on the road between London and Brighton have been fully described, the sole object has been to give, as far as possible, a history of the coaches which ran in and out of Brighton.

If in another two cen turies balloons or some other mode of travel shall have superseded railroads, he who sits down to write a history of trains will search the papers in vain for anecdotes of the engine-drivers and passenger-guards who occupy to-day the position that the Snows, the Hines, and the Millises did sixty vears ago. The twenty illustrations from water-colour drawings by James and George Temple represent the principal points of interest on the Brighton road. W. C. A. B. Loxdox. October 1893. CONTENTS

Chapter I. Page

Brighton of Old ........ 1-18 Modes of spelling — Pepys's Diary — Brighton, her streets and carriages — Navigation — Descriptions of Brighton — " Merry Doctor Brighton " — First visit of the Prince of Wales (Ge yi-ge IV.)— The Pavilion— " Princely Affability "—Mrs. Fitzherbert, her lineage — "Lass of Richmond Hill" — The Prince and Mrs. Fitzherbert — The Prince marries Caroline of Brunswick — Sir John Lade — Lady Lade — Sir John Lade's coachmanship — Colonel Mellish — Sir John Lade and Lord Cholmondeley — The Marchioness of Conyngham — Absence of George IV. from Brighton — Smoaker Miles and the Prince — The Brighton barber.

Chapter II

Brighton and its Roads. ...... 19-23 Badness of Sussex roads — Visit of the Emperor Charles VI. to Petworth — Horace Walpole — Dr. John Burton's "Iter Sussexiense " — Long-legged animals in Sussex — Tubb & Davis's machine — Road-mending — Broad wheels advocated — Acts of Parliament relating to turnpikes — New roads — Lewes route to London — Horsham route to London — Cuckfield route to London — New road by Hickstead — Protest of inhabitants of Reigate against new road — The White Hart, Reigate, and George the Fourth's rooms.

Chapter III

Stage-Coach Legislation ...... 24-29 The broad -wheeled waggon — Overloaded coaches — Mr. Gammon's proposed legislation against overloading coaches — Act of ('(.INTENTS XII \E PA'J Parliament 28th George III. chap. 57— Failure of Act —Act of Parliament 30th George III. chap. 36 — Old English— A third Act passed to prevent overloading— Height of coaches — Act of Parliament 2nd and 3rd William IV. chap. 120.

Chapter IV

The Brighton Road in the Last Century 30-62 Beginning of stage-coaching — Chamberlayne on the advantages of coaching — Mr. Cressett opposes coaches — Trains and coaches — De Laune on coaches — Bredhempstone — Earliest coach to Brighton — Company of Parish Clerks — Coach to Brighton iu 1732 — Conveyances to Brighton in 1741 — Coach to Lewes — "Flying Machine'' to Brighton — The basket, invention of Bonner — " Back Gammon " — James Batchelor, an early coach-proprietor — The Lewes one-day stage-coach or chaise — Opposition by Tubb & Brawne — Fares from London to Lewes and Brighton — " Machines " — New large flying chariot — Batchelor's death — Tubb & Davis become partners — A " Fly " — Loshmer & Co. — The Brighton diligence — First coach through Cuckfield — Coaching in 1784 — Snowstorm in 1789 — Springless coach-boxes — Singular wager — Henwood & Scott — Davis fi; Co. — Ibherson & Co. — Wessen's coach — Comforts of a stage-coach — " God permits " — Coaching in 1 79 1 — Introduction of mail-coaches — First mail-coach on Brighton road — Long-bodied coaches advocated — Action against coachmen — Expenses of coach-travelling and posting compared — Coach accidents — Journey from Brighton to London in last century — Bannister, the publican of Hand Gross — Arrival at Reigate — Coaching dinner — Port and sherry — Walking up Reigate Hill — The " Cock " at Sutton — The Elephant and Castle — Golden Cross, Charing Cross — — Hackney carriages — A coach robbery — Robbery of the Brighton mail — Howell and Rooke, trial and execution of — The boy and the highwayman — Coaching in 1793 — Coach through Ditchling and Lindtield — Crosweller becomes a proprietor — Scott's coaches — Reduced fares — Retirement of Tubb — Postboys and return fares — "The vicar's belly and the curate's kitchen" — Night-coaches — Increase of fares — London and Brighton an eight hours' journey — Shrewsbury flying waggon — Increase of price of forage — Bradford becomes a coach proprietor — Coach offices — Coaching at the end of the last century.

CONTENTS XIII CHAPTER, V. I'AGE From iSoo to 1809 ....... 63-77 An unsociable traveller — Travelling with jristols — Highwaymen — Public apology by abusive coachman — Abusive turnpike keepers — Journey from London to Brighton in 1 So 1 — The Blossoms Inn — Breakfast at the " Cock," Sutton — The Tangier — Miss Jeal's elderberry wine — George IV. — Reigate — Hand Cross — Smugglers — Dinner at Staplefield Common — Cheiry-trees — Clayton Hill — Coaching in 1802 — Rival firms — Fares — New Royal Union Four-Horse Coach Co., starting of — Provided beds gratis at Brighton — Mail-boys and mail-drivers, new uniform of — Bolt-in- Tun — Death of Howell, coach proprietor — Coaches in 1807 — "Uncommonly quick travelling" — The Devil's Dyke — Boulton & Co.'s enterprise — Offer to return fares if coach is late — Sharp practice by two gentlemen — Night-coaches — Later morning coaches — Shergold, proprietor of Castle Hotel — Sale of share in coach business — Returns of coach business — Loss and recovery of bills and notes — Honesty the best policy — Waldegrave's coach capsizes — The "sable plume" — Accident to Pattenden's coach — Letter in defence of Pattenden.

Chapter VI

From 1810 to 1814 ....... 78-95 Curious accident at Angel Inn, Strand — "Miller" Bradford— New mail-coach between London and Brighton in 1810 — Early delivery and late post — Willan and the Prince's hack— An East Street tradesman and the early post — Mail-coaches at the General Post-Office — Passenger by the mail — Lord C. Somerset and the soldier — Freezing and overflow at the " Grand Arch," at junction of Lewes and Preston roads — Gentlemen coachmen — Mr. Warde of Squerries — Benson Driving Club — Mr. Thrupp's "History of Coaches" — Coaching "statistics for 1 8 1 1 — Coaches between London and Brighton in 181 1 — Mackerell & Waldegrave — The New Inn, Brighton — The Princess Charlotte coach — Sale at Aldridge's — Great bank-note robbery from a Blue coach — Carelessness in sending money — Account of how the robbery was committed — Combination of postmasters — Turnpike gate-keepers, devices of — Humours of Brighton — Postboy's wedding — London and Brighton coach vid Horsham — The Red Office and coaches — The Blue coaches — Accident to Lord C. Somerset's carriage — A calf killed — Narrowescape of Mackerell's CONTENTS XIV PAQE coach— Coaches and the carriage of letters— Thames frozen over in 1 814— Mr. Whitbread and his sleigh— Coaching arrangements in 1 814— Green peas at four guineas a pint— " Imperial condescension "—The Emperor Alexander and the church congregation.

Chapter VII

From 1815 to 1S19 96-117 French oats at eighteen shillings per quarter — Careless driving by coachman of the Comet — Coaches for 181 5 — John Gully's set-to with "The Chicken" — Hine's light coach — Coach proprietors and tolls — A test action — Tandem matches between London and Brighton — A Sussex parson makes a bet — A trotting -match — Juvenile mendicants — A fast coach — Breakage of three whips in a journey, and death of fifteen horses in a week — Pace of the modern Comet — Collision between the Phœnix and the Dart — Coaches in 1 817 — French Government and English mail-coaches — A hint to coachmen — Robberyfrom a van — Coaches in 181 7 — The New Times — A hinged horse-shoe — Death of Mr. John Palmer — The mail-coach system — A safety-coach — Its weight — Accident to the Coburg coach — The " Trivector " — Coaches in 18 19.

Chapter VIII

From 1820 to 1S24 ....... 1 18-132 Mr. Milton and his safety-coach — " Accommodation " and " Post " coaches — Procession of mails on King's birthday — Mr. Waterhouse' s greys — Coaches in 1820 — Two Defiances — New derivation of safety coach — Subscription for Whitchurch, coach proprietor — Snowstorm in 1821 — Accident to Snow's coach — "Running with a fury" between London and Brighton — William Hine's Alert coach — William Genn's new coach — Breakdown of a safety coach, and capsize of Brighton mail — Coaches for 182 1 — Number of coaches on Brighton road in 1822 — Coach advertisement — The common informer— Price's Islington coach — Coaches from George and Blue Boar, and Boar and Castle (London) — Summer coaches — Subscription for booking-clerk — Horse sales at Rymill's and Maitan's repositories — Accommodation at George and Blue Boar— Coaches from London to all parts — Post-horses at Barnet. CONTENTS XV

Chapter IX. Pace

From 1825 to 1829 ....... 133-167 Mr. Jessett's school — Tom Brown's journey to Rugby — Advertisements for coach-horses — The " General Stage- Coach Company " — Its prospectus — Newcastle coach and the fee system in 1786 — Opposition to the General Stage- Coach Company — The Company's prospectus — "Vampire's" letter on Brighton coaches — Pickpockets at coach-offices — Johnson and Byers, the informers — Legislation to prevent overloading coaches — Waldegrave's Accommodation coach — Byers in court — Byers at Bath — Informers at Oxford — Pursuit of informers — Profits and losses of coach proprietors — Mr. Wightman's idea of maximum speed of train — King's Road first named — General Stage Coach Company — Sale of the Monarch horses — Coaches for 1826 — Accident to the Eclipse coach — Akehurst's patent bit — A stage-coach prop — AVaterhouse's coach built after manner of German coaches — A coach with an awning — Runaway coach-horses — The Magnet horses run away — Escape of the mail — Fares by Comet and Old Times (modern) — Pace of Brighton mail — Carrier's liability for loss of parcels of greater value than five pounds — Railway and Canal Traffic Act — Brighton mail robbed — Dart coach robbed — The Rocket coach — — Horse sale at Aldridge's — Coaching and posting inns to let — Pattenden's failure — Byers again — Byers arrested — His release and return to Brighton — Mr. H. Stevenson — Coach-travelling in winter — Brighton coachmasters — Burstall & Hill's steam-carriage — Growth of west end of Brighton — A night-coach — Number of coaches on London road in 1828 — Expenses of coaches — Earnings of coaches — Opposition on road — Losses of proprietors — "Viator Junior" on coaches and coachmen — Pair-horse coaches — " Tim " Carter — The " Life Preserver" — Coaches in 1828 — No guards to many coaches — Cutting out a lady's pocket — Coach robbery — Accident to Alert coach — Omnibus carrying twenty-four passengers inside suggested — Vans and waggons — Carrier's liability — " Paul Pry" van did not intrude — Winch & Chaplin's van.

Chapter X

From 1830 to 1834 ....... 168-200 Old Lai" — Four foxhounds in hand on the North road — Dumsdale and his unicorn team of three bulldogs — Death of Mr. H. Stevenson, of the Age — The Coronet — The Waterb CONTENTS XVI PAGE •231 witch— Mr. Stevenson's career and illness— The Age capsized—T. W. Capps and the Age— James Cross, the coachman, summoned by Mr. Amiat— Impertinent coachmen—Theo philus Holmes— Anecdote of Dick Vaughan— A Mother Superior— Byers again— The Red Rover coach— An unde cided wager— Coaching statistics — Afternoon coaches— " Tim " Carter— Taking the King's Speech to Brighton— A slow coach— Royal Adelaide safety coach— The Reform coach — "Dashwood" on fast driving — The Waterwitch coach— The Red Rover and Waterwitch race— Goodman's "Four-o'clock Times '—The Earl Grey coach— Accidents —Accident to the Brighton mail— Distance run by mail coaches each night — Post-office mail-carts — Hancock's steam carriage—Trip of, to Brighton— Clay v. iron retorts— Byers and steam-carriages — Furious driving — The Marquis of Worcester starts coaches against Goodman — The Wonder and Quicksilver— Accident to Quicksilver— Mr. Ward's Re miniscences — Fast travelling — " Nimrod " on bearing-reins — " Nimrod's " Essays — The Criterion coach — Death of Sir William Cosway — Thomas Wilkins, a coachman sum moned by Mr. Chamier — Leaving horses unattended.

Chapter XI

From 1835 to 1839 ....... 201 " Well-born coachmen" — Mr. Sackville Gwynne — The Age after Mr. Stevenson's death — The two Ages — Willan's Age — Capps's Age — Newspaper war between Mr. Willan and Capps — Plus si necesse sit — Shillibeer's diHgence — A ten-pound coach-horse — The original diligence — Coaches for 1835 — Sir St. Vincent Cotton buys Mr. Willan's Age — Mr. AVillan takes the Magnet — Chaplin and Crunden — The A7ivid coach — Accident to the Age horses — An intoxicated coachman — The snowstorm of 1836 — Brighton Gazette's account of storm — The mail in the storm — Taylor, the mail-guard — ' Querini, the King's cook — Energy of Post-Office officials — Coaches snowed up — A " coach retarder " — Death of Crosweller — Coaches in 183S — Dummy parcels — The " Stafford " safety-coach — Establishment of Brighton day-mail — Mr. C. AVard its first coachman — Railways — Accident to Adams's coach — The Royal A^ictoria — Retirement of Sir St. Vincent Cotton from the Age — Mr. C. T. Jones succeeds him — Acci dent to a coachman — Coachmasters' petition for reduction of duties — Miles run in a year by stage-coaches in England — " Autobiography of a Stage-Coachman" by Thomas Cross — His petition to Parliament — Old stage-coachmen — Death CONTEXTS XVII of Mr. Cussell — Skidding without stopping — Death of Fisher, a mail-guard — Francis Vickers and the " half " pas senger — The Sunday afternoon coach, the Czar.

Chapter XII

From 1840 to 1846 ....... 232-246 The wane of stage-coaching — The steam-engine as a .substitute for horse-power — Accident to the Times coach — Hills's steam-carriage visits Brighton — Brighton to London in five hours — The Duke of Beaufort coach — The " Conservative Mail " — " To coachmasters and others " — " Hayward's Heath near Cuckfield " — Opening of the railway from London to Hayward's Heath — The battle of Waterloo and death of Queen Elizabeth — Bowing to the inevitable — Last coaches on the Brighton road — Wages of mail-guards raised — The Rival coach — The Coronet coach — Opening of railway to Brighton — " Coach and railway offices " — Omnibuses and flys — The day-mail taken off — A coach-wheel on fire — Bad state of London road — The night-mail — A desponding horsekeeper — Mrs. Hine in the "stationery and perfumery line" — " Viator " on overcharging — The Golden Fleece — Cabs and omnibuses — Capps's Rail Road coach — The Victoria — The Age the last Brighton coach on near route — The last Lewes and London coach — Lament over the decay of coaching — " Gentlemen coachmen " — The AArindsor Taglioni — Mr. Sackville Gwynne.

Chapter XIII

The Brighton Boad in Modern Times . . . 247-252 A coaching middle age — Adlam and Clark — The F.H.D.C. — Captain Haworth and the coaching revival — The Old Times (1866) — Coaches by Messrs. Holland & Holland— The Chequers at Horley — A Brighton winter coach — The Brighton road 1868-1872 — Colonel Stracey Clitherow — Mr. Tiffany — Mr. Freeman takes Brighton road in 1875 — His partners — His coachman — Mr. Freeman runs to AArindsor — E. Fownes's Age — Mr. Tiffany runs to Brighton via Reigate — Mr. C. Blythe runs to Brighton via Tunbridge AVells and Lewes — Three leaders abreast — Sell^-'s Old Times on Brighton road — Selby's death — Brighton horses bought, not jobbed — Mr. Goodbun — The Old Ship — Country coaches from Brighton — The old style and the new. CONTENTS XVIII

Chapter XIV. Page

Brighton's Cross-Country Coaches .... 253-277 Total number of coaches out of Brighton— The Blue Office- Lewes, Eastbourne, and Hastings road — Smart's stage Lewes to Brighton— Fuller's Eastbourne coach — A "new light caravan" — Durden's Brighton and Hastings coach — The Royal Charlotte— Coachmen and smugglers — A lack of passengers— Routes to Hastings from Brighton— New road from Lewes to Eastbourne — Brighton and Margate coaches — Newman's Hastings coach — A light coach — John Hoare' s Magnet coach — Ade's opposition coach — New road by Ashcombe Gate — John Hoare buys Patterson's Hastings coach — Bad roads between Brighton and Lewes — Death of John Hoare, and sale of his stock — Fuller's New Inn, Eastbourne — Conveyance of mails between Brighton and Hastings — Mail-coach between London and Hastings — Increase in number of coaches between Hastings and Brighton — Opposition on Brighton and Hastings road — Travelling gratis — South-Eastern Railway and Hastings coach proprietors — Railway between London and Tunbridge — Mrs. Strevens, female warder at Lewes — Incidents on Lewes road — A dislocated knee-cap and a good Samaritan — Dummy parcels — An intoxicated coach passenger — Collisions — Deaths of William and Thomas Simcock — Brighton to Tunbridge Wells and Maidstone — Stage-cart in 1800 — Robbery of Maidstone coach and caravan — Humphrey's coach in 18 10 — Other coaches to Maidstone — To Chatham — " Fair Play " on the Brighton and Tunbridge AA'ells road — Fleet's fear of accident — Accident to Fleet — His death — Inquest on Fleet — Further accidents to the Maidstone coach — Snowstorm of 1S36 — Royal Blue and Defiance coaches — Steam-carriage visits Tunbridge AATells — Opening of South-Eastern Railway to Tunbridge in 1842.

Chapter XV

Brighton to AVorthing, Chichester, Portsmouth, Bath, and Bristol 278-299 Worthing of old and its coaches — New road by Lower Lancing — Frost and thaw — Racing between coaches in 18 10 — Brighton and Chichester mail — First Portsmouth coach to Brighton — Accidents — Fare from Portsmouth to Bath — Race on Portsmouth road — A madman in a coach — Penalties for overcrowding coach — Accident to Crosweller's coach — CONTENTS XIX PAGE The Swan, Chichester — The Dolphin, Chichester — Snow's coaches on AVorthing road — New coach from Brighton to Chichester — Mr. John AValker — His Bognor coach — "Rollin" and " Robin "—Failure of Mr. AValker's coach- Sale of Michel Grove — Cross's Champion coach — Capsize of London and Bognor coach — Earl of Arran coach over the Littlehampton Ferry — A famous roan horse — The thoroughbred horse Pomegranate — Coach-horses in a shop window — Blind horses — Accident to one — " One eye amongst us" — A "deranged" wheel — " Cads" on a coach — Portsmouth and Brighton coaches in 1830 — The Bath and Bristol Red Rover — Accident to a lady travelling by — Little Red Rover — Accident to Red Rover — To Defiance Portsmouth coach — The new Gloucester mail in the snowstorm of 1836 — How the mail-bags were brought to Brighton — The AVorthing mail-cart — The coastguard — Horses running away without coachman — " No jarvey " — Upfold, of the Southampton coach — His career, accidents, and death — His successor — Omnibuses — Break-up of the road — The Shoreham Railway — The Royal A^ictoria — AVindsor, Reading, and Oxford — The Oxford Hero — AVindsor coach — Mr. Millis, an old coachman — The Royal Sovereign — No opposition — Re munerative and unremunerative waybills — A Christmas Day journey- — The Farnham coach — A pulling leader — Head-terrets — Broken reins and pole — Route of Brighton and Oxford coach in 1841.

Chapter XVI

The Growth of Coachmanship ..... 300-315 The broad-wheeled waggon — A period of advance — No history of driving — An old Act of Parliament — The carrier period — Improvement in driving must have taken place between 1 7 So and 1S00 — AVho invented pole-hook and bars — Leaders drawing from wheelers' traces — The possibly original bar — The coupling rein — Holding reins — Treatises on riding — "Nimrod's" Essays on driving — Driving clubs — Amateurs— The short wheel-rein— Driving with a full hand —Use of the whip— Ancient whips— A day's stock of whip-points— Catching or folding a whip—" Nimrod's" directions for hitting a wheeler— The old coachman and his whip- Expert use of whip not common in "Nimrod's" time— The "flea biting the lobster "—Hitting a leader— Exaggerated stories of— Old and new school of coachmen compared—Collisions—A skilful coachman presuming upon his skill v. a careful muff— Coaching and coach-horses in CONTENTS XX PAGE olden time — AVorthing coach-proprietor's directions to his coachman — Mrs. Ann Nelson and one of her coachmen — Modern coach-horses — A good sale desired — Modern coach men — " Viator Junior's " suggestion why good coachmen were scarce on the Brighton road — Mr. Stevenson — " The Baronet" — Who drew up rules for driving — Letters to the Field — Contradictory directions — Position of hand — Bent arm v. straight arm — Doctors differ : who shall decide ? — Possible explanation of contradictory directions — Driving volume of Badminton Library — Theory and practice — Second hand to the reins — Driving with two hands v. two handed driving — Shortening reins — How the operation is to be performed — Quot homines tot sententiœ.