THE ROAD. 
About two hours were allowed for dinner; but "Billy 
Williams" one of the best-tempered fellows on earth, 
as honest as Aristides, and, until lately, upon the same 
ground was never particular to half an hour or so : 
"The coach is ready, gentlemen," he would say; "but 
don't let me disturb you, if you wish for another 
bottle." A coach now runs over this ground a trifle 
under four hours! 
The Brighton road may be said to be covered with 
coaches, no less than twenty-five running upon it in 
the summer. The fastest is the Vivid, from the Spread 
Eagle, Gracechurch Street, which performs the journey 
in five hours and a quarter. That called the Age, when 
driven and horsed by the late Mr. Stevenson, was an 
object of such admiration at Brighton that a crowd was 
every day collected to see it start. Mr. Stevenson was 
a graduate of Cambridge ; but his passion for the bench 
got the better of all other ambitions, and he became a 
coachman by profession; and it is only justice to his 
memory to admit that, though cut off in the flower of 
his youth, he had arrived at perfection in his art. His 
education and early habits had not, however, been lost 
upon him : his demeanour was always that of a gentle- 
man ; and it may be fairly said of him, that he intro- 
duced the phenomenon of refinement into a stage-coach. 
At a certain change of horses on the road, a silver sand- 
wich-box was handed to his passengers by his servant, 
accompanied by the offer of a glass of sherry to such as 
were so inclined. Well-born coachmen prevail on this 
