STAGE-COACHES OF THE PERIOD. 183 



returning each day (Sundays, of course, excepted, as 

 is the rule with all the coaches leaving the Cellar), 

 from the Greorge Hotel, at 4 P.M. This is a real 

 stage-coach, running throughout the winter, the 

 severity of which did not appal Major Dixon, nor 

 discourage Selby, who braved the pitiless pelting of 

 many storms. At 12 o'clock on every Tuesday, 

 Thursday, and Saturday, what may be well called, to 

 use the advertised term, "a fast four-horse coach" 

 leaves the Cellar for Brighton, arriving at the Old 

 Ship Hotel at 6 o'clock, doing the journey through- 

 out at a rattling pace of eleven and a-half miles an 

 hour. Arriving at this well-known hostelry, the visitor 

 may take the word of one who has frequented it, 

 any time these fifty years, that he will fare right 

 well. Every day during the season a capital coach 

 is worked between the Ranelagh and Hurlingham 

 Clubs, doing the distance in 35 minutes; but the 

 disastrous season so affected the attendance at these 

 fashionable resorts that the balance will be found, I 

 fear, on the wrong side of the ledger. Day after day 

 did the heavy downpour spoil the pleasure and limit 

 the company at the Ranelagh; and notwithstanding 

 the great exertions of Mr. Reginald Herbert to 

 provide high-class amusements, it must have been 

 anything but a profitable business this year. 



After the departure of the Ranelagh coach there 

 has daily been a lull until 4 o'clock, at which hour 

 Mr. Robinson's admirably turned-out coach leaves for 

 Thames Ditton, going by way of Kew, Teddington, 

 and Hampton Court, and reaching the Swan Hotel at 

 7.50. This is a lovely ride, terminating in time for 

 the passenger, if he so desires, to return to London by 



