16 COACHING DAYS AND COACHING WAYS 



Yeovil, Poole, and ' Quicksilver,' Devonport (which was 

 the one I was driving), went the straight road towards 

 Staines. YYe always saluted each other when passing 

 with ' Good-night, Bill/ ' Dick/ or ' Harry/ as the case 

 might be. I was once passing a Mail, mine being the 

 fastest, and gave the wonted salute. A coachman 

 named Downs was driving the Stroud Mail. He in- 

 stantly recognised my voice, and said, ' Charley, what 

 are you doing on my road ? ' It was he however who 

 had made the mistake ; he had taken the Staines 

 instead of the Slough Road out of Hounslow. We both 

 pulled up immediately. He had to turn round and go 

 back, which was a feat attended with much difficulty in 

 such a fog. Had it not been for our usual salute he 

 would not have discovered his mistake before reaching 

 Staines." 



After leaving Cranford Bridge — where I shall leave 

 the Flying Machine and its passengers, it is much too 

 slow for me, considering the ground I have to get over, 

 and with the help of the York House fast day coach, 

 or the Bristol Mail, or the Beaufort Hunt, I shall be at 

 Bath before they " inn" for the night at Reading. After 

 leaving Cranford Bridge with its White Hart Inn, the 

 memory of which is in the nostrils of old stage coach- 

 men as a sweet-smelling savour, the Bath Road runs 

 through flat pastoral country (indeed, this side of 

 Reading there is hardly a rise), past Sipson Green, where 

 at the Magpies post horses could be procured, past 

 Longford where they couldn't, till it enters Buckingham- 

 shire just before reaching Colnbrook. 



And in entering Buckinghamshire we are on classic 

 ground. Every yard of the way burns with memories 

 — not of broken poles, of runaway teams, of chains 

 snapped and coaches running on wheelers, and like data 

 of purely horsey history ; the Bath Road is not rich in 

 this kind of recollection, being a flat, comfortable road 

 almost as far as Newbury, and as a consequence not as 

 remarkable as many others for great catastrophes, and 



