BRITISH SPORT PAST AND PRESENT 



man himself had both legs broken. Accidents due to reckless 

 driving and racing were very common, despite the law ^ of 

 1790 which made a coachman who, by furious driving or care- 

 less, 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 



1 30 Geo. III., c. 36. 

 126 



