56 



time, a mail coach making its first trip in 

 August, 1784, when the journey from Bristol 

 to London, about 119 miles, was performed 

 in 1 7 hours, or at a rate of 7 miles per hour. 

 The era of macadamised roads, which was 

 followed by the short " golden age " of fast 

 coaching, can hardly be said to belong to 

 this reign, Mr. Macadam's system of road- 

 making having been generally adopted only 

 in 1819. 



The founding of the Royal Veterinary 

 College at Camden Town in 1791 was by 

 no means the least important event of this 

 reign ; it is not too much to say that it 

 marked an epoch in the history of the Horse ; 

 for the establishment of this institution made 

 an end of the quackery, often exceedingly 

 cruel, which for centuries had passed for 

 medical treatment of animals. Until the end 

 of the eighteenth century English veterinary 

 practitioners had been content to follow in 

 the footsteps of such teachers as Gervaise 

 Markham, who was the great authority on 

 equine diseases two hundred years before : 

 and the principles and practice of Gervaise 

 Markham were hardly free from the taint 

 of witchcraft and sorcery. Some of the more 

 drastic and obviously useless remedies had 

 been discredited and abandoned, but at the 



