Jo 4 ANNALS OF THE ROAD. 



CHAPTER XXI. 



THE BRIGHTON ROAD. 



Of the London and Brighton road — perhaps the most 

 nearly perfect, and certainly the most fashionable, of all 

 coaching roads (a fashion which, like the top boot, never 

 changes), it would be unpardonable not to give some de- 

 tails. I therefore present to my readers, in this and the 

 following two chapters, an interesting account of coach- 

 men and guards employed on it about forty or fifty years 

 ago, which was contributed to the pages of the ' Sporting 

 Magazine' in 1828, by an able writer whose nom dc 

 plume was ' Viator Junior.' 



' Great as the improvement made in modern travelling 

 has everywhere been, it has on no road been more con- 

 spicuous than on that between Brighton and the Metro- 

 polis. Twenty years ago the quickest coaches never 

 performed the journey in less than nine hours and a half, 

 or ten hours ; and, although still a young man, I can 

 perfectly remember my father relating as an exploit that 

 he had posted on a most particular and express occasion 

 to his own door, four miles short of London, in eight 

 hours. It is needless to tell your readers that every coach 

 now runs ixovc\. yard X.o> yard in seven, and some of them, 



