Oiir Modem Stage-coaches. 277 



the country in this direction, especially in the im- 

 mediate vicinity of Box Ilill and Dorking, will be 

 found to be lovely. 



If he desires merely a short afternoon's ride, then 

 the Thames Ditton coach, the proprietor of which is 

 Mr. Peter Robinson, ought to suit him, travelling 

 as it does through Kew, Richmond, Twickenham, 

 Bushey Park, Hampton Court, and East Moulsey, 

 reaching Thames Ditton after a journey of an hour 

 and fifty minutes ; or if he prefers to journey in the 

 direction of Hertfordshire, he will find Selby's coach — 

 the Tantivy — ready to convey him to St. Albans, in 

 first-rate style, with promptitude and despatch worthy 

 of the old coaching days. Should, however, he be a 

 thorough-going lover of the art of driving, and desire 

 to go on for a regular downright old-fashioned piece 

 of road work, then he must mount the Defiance, and 

 trust himself to that skilled coachman, Mr. Carleton 

 Blyth, who has entered on a big thing, having pro- 

 vided no less than 125 first-class coach-horses and 

 two coaches, built by Hollands, in their very best 

 style — which is not to be excelled by any builder in 

 London — in order to perform the now-a-daj^s extra- 

 ordinary journey between the two Universities, the 

 distance between Oxford and Cambridge being 

 certainly not less than 112 miles, the coach being 

 timed to do the distance in twelve hours, including 

 stoppages and a halt of twenty minutes at the White 

 Horse Cellar for luncheon. 



Such a venture is enough to take one's breath away. 

 The capital embarked is no small sum, and the return 

 must be to an extent uncertain ; but Mr. Blyth is a 

 true lover of driving, and, in my opinion, should he 



