COACHING DAYS AND WAYS 



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 a la Dodswell, and never awoke 

 till Monday morning in Piccadilly? "What coach, 

 your honour ? " says a ruflSanly-looking fellow, much 



18 



