THE HOLYHEAD ROAD 347 



seven hours thirty minutes — a feat which altogether 

 beats the record in Coaching Annals ; though on May 

 Day, 1838, "the Shrewsbury Greyhound came a good 

 second by travelling the 153 miles two furlongs at the 

 rate of twelve miles an hour, including stoppages. 

 And as an irreproachable coaching authority repre- 

 sents that eleven miles an hour, including stoppages, 

 stands for galloping at least the greater part of the way, 

 an easy calculation may be made as to what extent the 

 coachmen of the Tallyho " sprung their cattle." 



Flying Machines these, indeed ! Of a different kind 

 though to those which in the year of Grace 1742 had 

 already made the North- Western Roads famous jfor head- 

 long speed, when the Oxford Machine used to leave 

 London at 7 A.M. (the weather, Providence, and a variety 

 of other factors permitting), arrived at Uxbridge (fourteen 

 miles seven furlongs) from Tyburn Turnpike at midday, 

 and at High Wycombe (twenty-eight miles seven fur- 

 longs) at 5 P.M., where they inned for the night, and 

 proceeded desperately to. Oxford next morning. Nor 

 when George the Second was king was the Manchester 

 Telegraph of 1836 without a prototype. For it came 

 to pass in 1754 that a company of Manchester merchants, 

 having considered how Time flew, and to what a degree 

 the success or non-success of commercial speculation 

 coincided with the flight of Time, bethought them how 

 most nearly in their passage to and from London they 

 might fly themselves. To which end they started a new 

 sensation called a " Flying Coach." And they carefully 

 put forward in a well-w^eighed prospectus the claims of 

 their invention to the title, stating that there was no non- 

 sensical pretence about the thing this time, but that in 

 point of honest fact they seriously contemplated running 

 their machine at the accelerated speed of five miles an 

 hour ; and that however incredible it might appear, the 

 coach would actually, barring accidents, arrive in London 

 four days and a half after leaving Manchester ! 



