COACHING DAYS AND WAYS 



contest is to take place are yet determined on. 

 Mr. Buxton is said to be so certain of success 

 that he has offered to double the bet.' 



Though the law of 1820 made racing a criminal 

 offence, the practice was one which could not be 

 wholly put down, and on May-day the law was 

 set at naught by popular consent, rival coaches 

 on that day racing one another without disguise : 

 the May-day race became an institution of the road, 

 and seems to have been winked at by the author- 

 ities. Some wonderful records were made in these 

 contests on the macadam. Thus, on 1st May 1830, 

 the Independent Tally Ho ran from London to 

 Birmingham, 109 miles, in 7 hours 39 minutes. 

 It was not rare for a coach to perform its journey 

 at a rate of fifteen miles an hour on May-day. 

 We may compare this with the time made in the 

 Leicester-Nottingham race of 1808 mentioned on 

 page 17. 



It is seventy years since the carriage of the 

 mails was transferred from coach to railway train, 

 and there are yet living men who can remember 

 the last journeys of the mail-coaches, some carrying 

 little flags at half-mast, some displaying a miniature 



52 



