34 THE BRIGHTON ROAD 



would surely want to return to Hades, or Paradise, 

 wherever he may be, at once. Around him would be, 

 to his senses, an astonishing whirl and noise of traffic, 

 despite the wood-paving that has superseded macadam, 

 which itself displaced the granite setts he knew. 

 Many strange and horrid portents he would note, and 

 Holborn would be to him as an unknown street in a 

 strange town. 



Than 1826 the informative Cary goes no further, 

 and his " Itinerary," excellent though it be, and 

 invaluable to those who would know aught of the 

 coaches that plied in the years when it was published, 

 gives no particulars of the many " butterfly ' coaches 

 and amateur drags that cut in upon the regular 

 coaches during the rush and scour of the season. 



In 1821 it was computed that over forty coaches 

 ran to and from London and Brighton daily ; in 

 September, 1822, there were thirty-nine. In 1828 

 it was calculated that the sixteen permanent coaches 

 then running, summer and winter, received between 

 them a sum of £60,000 per annum, and the total sum 

 expended in fares upon coaching on this road was 

 taken as amounting to £100.000 per annum. That 

 leaves the very respectable amount of £40.000 for the 

 season's takings of the " butterflies." 



An accident happened to the "Alert " on October 

 9th, 1829, when the coach was taking up passengers 

 at Brighton. The horses ran away, and dashed the 

 coach and themselves into an area sixteen feet deep. 

 The coach was battered almost to pieces, and one 

 lady was seriously injured. The horses escaped 

 unhurt. In 1832, August 25th, the Brighton Mail was 

 upset near Reigate, the coachman being killed. 



This was the era of those early motor-cars, the steam- 

 carriages, which, in spite of their clumsy construction 

 and appalling ugliness, arrived very nearly to a 

 commercial success. Many inventors were engaged 

 from 1823 to 1838 upon this subject, Walter Hancock, 

 in particular, began in 1824, and in 1828 proposed a 

 service of his " land-steamers " between London and 



