NAMES OF THE COACHES 33 



This type gave place to coaches of lighter build 

 about 1823/ 



In 1826 seventeen coaches ran to Brighton from 

 London every morning, afternoon, or evening. They 

 had all of them the most high-sounding of names, 

 calculated to impress the mind either with a sense of 

 swiftness, or to awe the understanding with visions 

 of aristocratic and court-like grandeur. As for the 

 times they individually made, and for the inns from 

 which thev started, vou who are insatiable of dry 

 bones of fact mav go to the Library of the British 

 Museum and find vour Cary (without an " c ") and 

 do vour gnawing of them. That thev started at all 

 manner of hours, even the most uncanny, you must 

 rest assured ; and that they took off from the (to 

 ourselves) most impossible and romantic-sounding of 

 inns, may be granted, when such examples as the 

 strangely incongruous " George and Blue Boar," the 

 Herrick-like " Blossoms " Inn, and the idyllic-seeming 

 " Flower-pot " are mentioned. 



Thev were, those seventeen coaches, the ' lloval 

 Mail,"" the "Coronet," "Magnet." "Comet," "Roval 

 Sussex," "Sovereign," "Alert," "Dart," "Union," 

 "Regent." "Times," "Duke of York," "Roval 

 George," " True Blue," " Patriot," " Post," and the 

 " Summer Coach," so called, and they nearly all 

 started from the City and Hoi born, calling at West 

 End booking-offices on their several wavs. Most of 

 the old inns from which they set out are pulled down, 

 and the memory of them has faded. 



The " Golden Cross " at Charing Cross, from whose 

 doors started the " Comet " and the " Regent ' in 

 this year of grace 1826, and at which the " Times ' 

 called on its way from Holborn. has been wholly 

 remodelled ; the " White Horse," Fetter Lane, whence 

 the " Duke of York ' bowled away, has been 

 demolished : the " Old Bell and Crown " Inn, Holborn, 

 where the " Alert," the " Union." and the " Times " 

 drew up daily in the old-fashioned galleried courtyard, 

 is swept away. Were Viator to return to-morrow, he 

 c 



