COACHING 



bright bay colour with silver plate ornaments on 

 the harness and rosettes to the ears.' 



The meets of the driving clubs appear to have 

 roused a spirit of ribaldry in unregenerate youth. 

 One day in March 1809 a young Etonian made 

 his appearance in a low phaeton with a four-in- 

 hand of donkeys, with which he brought up the 

 rear of the procession as it drove round Grosvenor 

 and Berkeley Squares. 



The Driving Club was the Benson, which had 

 been founded in 1807. Sir Henry Peyton was 

 the last survivor of the 'noble, honourable, and 

 respectable' drivers who composed it. Thackeray 

 described him in the last of his papers on The 

 Four Georges as he appeared driving the *one solitary 

 four-in-hand' to be seen in the London parks. 

 He was then (1851) very old, and attracted atten- 

 tion as much by his dress, which was of the fashion 

 of 1825, as by his then unique turn-out. 



The Benson Club came to an end in 1853. The 

 Whip Club, otherwise the Four Horse Club, came 

 to an end in 1838. The Defiance Club, for mem- 

 bers who had been * lately permitted to retire' 

 from the other two, was projected in 1809, but 



49 G 



