158 



COACHING DAYS AND COACHING WAYS 



preferred by Mr. Freeman) ; and in the open space in 

 front of the coachhouse is, or was, a shapeless block 

 placed in an octagonal space, upon which eight kings 

 were crowned. 



From kings to public houses the transition is easy ; 

 and permits me the opportunity of remarking that the 

 Griffin and the Swan have taken the place of the trans- 

 formed Castle, and still retain the traditions and the 

 ale of the old days, when I should not like to say how 



many coaches, chaises, 

 and travel ling- waggons, 

 passed through the old 

 town between sunrise and 

 sunrise. 



Let a few of the more 

 celebrated coaches suffice 

 • — for I must not in my 

 history of the Portsmouth 

 Road lose sight of the 

 coaching portion of it, 

 though the Portsmouth 

 Road does not take a 

 high place in the record, 

 for speed, coaches or 

 cattle. Amongst the 

 coaches then which in 

 1 82 1 (to be particular in 

 dates) passed through Kingston may be mentioned — 



The Royal Mail, which left the Angel, St. Clement's, 

 Strand, at half-past seven every evening and arrived at 

 the George, Portsmouth, at 6.30 next morning ; from 

 the same house the Portsmouth Regulator, which 

 departed at eight in the morning and arrived at the 

 George, Portsmouth, at five the same afternoon ; from 

 the l^elle Sauvage, Ludgate Hill, departed every morning 

 the ]:)opular and celebrated Rocket, which same coach left 

 the White Bear, Piccadilly, at nine, and did the seventy- 

 one miles, seven furlongs to Portsmouth in nine hours. 



Birthplace of Archhislwp Abboi, Guildford. 



