ARISTOCRATIC COACHMEN 29 



that contradiction in terms, that horsey paradox, the 

 Amateur Professional, generally a sporting gentleman 

 brought to utter ruin by Corinthian gambols, and 

 taking to the one trade on earth at which he could 

 earn a wage. That is why the Golden Age of coachi no- 

 won on the Brighton Road a refinement it only aped 

 elsewhere. 



It is curious to see how coaching has always been, 

 even in its serious days, before steam was thought of, 

 the chosen amusement of wealthy and aristocratic 

 whips. Of those who affected the Brighton Road may 

 be mentioned the Marquis of Worcester, who drove 

 the " Duke of Beaufort," Sir St. Vincent Cotton of 

 the " Age," and the Hon. Fred Jerningham, who drove 

 the Day Mail. The "Age," too, had been driven by 

 Mr. Stevenson, a gentleman and a graduate of 

 Cambridge, whose " passion for the bench" as 

 " Nimrod ' says, superseded all other worldly 

 ambitions. He became a coachman by profession, 

 and a good professional he made ; but he had not 

 forgotten his education and early training, and he was, 

 as a whip, singularly refined and courteous. He 

 caused, at a certain change of horses on the road, a 

 silver sandwich-box to be handed round to the 

 passengers by his servant, with an offer of a glass of 

 sherry, should any desire one. Another gentleman. 

 ' connected with the first families in Wales," whose 

 father long represented his native county in Parliament, 

 horsed and drove one side of this ground with Mr. 

 Stevenson. 



This was " Sackie." Sackville Frederick Gwynne, of 

 Carmarthenshire, who quarrelled with his relatives 

 and took to the road ; became part proprietor of the 

 " Age," broke off from Stevenson, and eventually 

 lived and died at Liverpool as a cabdriver. He drove 

 a cab till 1874, when he died, aged seventy-three. 



Harrv Stevenson's connection with the Brighton 



*■' O 



Road began in 1827, when, as a young man fresh from 

 Cambridge, he brought with him such a social 

 atmosphere and such full-fledged expertness in driving 



