194 COACHING DAYS AND COACHING WAYS 



had to leave his post-chaise (for some horrid reason which 

 he veils from posterity), and take to pedcstrianism — a 

 form of exercise which he ever particularly loathed. No 

 doubt however he would have bewailed his wrecked 

 post-chaise more had it resembled '' a harlequin's Calash " 

 less ; and a harlequin's Calash too " which was occasion- 

 ally a chaise or baker's cart " — which is the most re- 

 markable definition of a vehicle that I have chanced on 

 between Boadicea's chariot and a hansom cab ! Who 

 can wonder after reading it, that the man w^ho had rested 

 in it found Sussex " a great damper of curiosity " ? I 

 cannot wonder for one. 



All these horrors of the Brighton Road the much 

 abused George the Fourth did away, with the sweep as 

 it were of his fat, bejewelled, and august hand ! He 

 built the Pavilion, and people from all parts of the country 

 came straightway to see it and him. Now in building 

 the Pavilion, there can be no manner of doubt I think 

 in reasonable minds that the first gentleman in Europe 

 did the " accursed thing " spoken of by the prophet ; 

 but when the crowds which this atrocity attracted are 

 considered, almost half the sin may be forgiven him. 

 For the crowds soon found from such miry experiences 

 as have already been detailed, that if they ivere to come 

 to Brighton, and to court, they had better have some 

 decent road to come upon. And from this simple bring- 

 ing home of a plain truth came into existence the Brighton 

 Road — " perhaps the most nearly perfect, and certainly 

 the most fashionable of all " — according to " Viator," 

 who should know what he is talking about. 



And not one road only ; but three roads — in point of 

 fact, according to some authorities, about five. P'rom 

 having practically no road to it at all, there is surely no 

 place in England which can be reached — (or rather 

 could be in the coaching days, for we can now only go 

 by the London and Brighton Railway) — could be 

 reached, by so many different routes as Brighton. Of 

 these the favourite — called the new road — went by 



