214 COACHING DAYS AND COACHING WAYS 



the old duke's intrepidity did not fail him even here. 

 He drank. Then finding that his head was failing him 

 he remarked that he had had enough of such hospitality, 

 and would go home. 



" The carriage was called and came, but in the half- 

 hour's interval the liquor had proved too potent for the 

 old man ; his host's generous purpose was answered, 

 and the duke's old gray head lay stupefied upon the 

 table. Nevertheless, when the post-chaise was an- 

 nounced he staggered to it as well as he could, and 

 stumbling in, bade the postillions drive to Arundel. 

 They drove him for half-an-hour round and round the 

 Pavilion lawn ; the poor old man fancied he was going 

 home. When he awoke that morning he was in bed at 

 the Prince's hideous house at Brighton. You may see 

 the place now for sixpence ; they have fiddlers there 

 every day, and sometimes buffoons and mountebanks 

 hire the riding-house, and do their tricks and tumbling 

 there. The trees are still there, and the gravel walks 

 round which the poor old sinner was trotted. 1 can 

 fancy the flushed faces of the royal princes as they 

 support themselves at the portico pillars — and look on 

 at old Norfolk's disgrace ; but I can't fancy how the man 

 who perpetrated it continued to be called a gentleman." 



It certainly is a hard nut to crack. But the above 

 graceful scene of conviviality at Brighton reminds me 

 that I have yet to make mention of the houses of entertain- 

 ment on the Brighton Road. Horace Walpole, it will 

 be remembered, said, in 1749, that there were no inns 

 in Sussex. But here I fear Horace pulled the long bow 

 of the disappointed tourist — for the guide-books of the 

 old coaching days tell a different tale. Amongst others 

 the following were well-known houses — of varying 

 degrees of merit, no doubt, and situated on different 

 routes. 



At Croydon — the Crown ; at Godstone Green — the 

 White Hart : at ICast Grinstead — the Dorset Arms : at 

 Uckfield — the Maiden's Head ; at Reigate — the Swan ; 



