COACHING RECORDS 41 



were plenty. The " Quicksilver," chameleon-like, 

 changed colour after this mishap, was repainted and 

 renamed, and reappeared as the " Criterion " ; for the 

 old name carried with it too great a spice of danger 

 for the timorous. 



On February 4th, 1834, the " Criterion," driven by 

 Charles Harbour, outstripping the old performances 

 of the " Vivid," and beating the previous wonderfully 

 quick journey of the " Red Rover," carried down 

 King William's Speech on the opening of Parliament 

 in 3 hours and 40 minutes, a coach record that has not 

 been surpassed, nor quite equalled, on this road, not 

 even by Selby on his great drive of July 13th, 1888, 

 his times being out and in respectively, 3 hours 56 

 minutes, and 3 hours 54 minutes. Then again, on 

 another road, on May Day, 1830, the " Independent 

 Tally-ho," running from London to Birmingham, 

 covered those 109 miles in 7 hours 39 minutes, a better 

 record than Selby's London to Brighton and back 

 drive by eleven minutes, with an additional mile to 

 the course. Another coach, the " Original Tally-ho," 

 did the same distance in 7 hours 50 minutes. The 

 " Criterion " fared ill under its new name, and gained 

 an unenviable notoriety on June 7th, 1834, being 

 overturned in a collision with a dray in the Borough. 

 Many of the passengers were injured ; Sir William 

 Cosway, who was climbing over the roof when the 

 collision occurred, was killed. 



In 1839, the coaching era, full-blown even to decay, 

 began to pewk and wither before the coming of steam, 

 long heralded and now but too sure. The tale of 

 coaches now decreased to twenty-three ; fares, which 

 had fallen in the cut-throat competition of coach 

 proprietors with their fellows in previous years to 10s. 

 inside, 5s. outside for the single journey, now rose to 

 21s. and 12s. Every man that horsed a coach, seeing 

 now was the shearing time for the public, ere the now 

 building railway was opened, strove to make as much as 

 possible ere he closed his yards, sold his stock, broke his 

 coach up for firewood, and took himself off the road. 



