90 THE COACHING ERA 



quicker than the Regulator, so the luckless old gentleman 

 is in a worse situation than ever; his hat and wig blow 

 off when he puts his head out of the window, to see if 

 the horses are running away, and he is whirled away 

 into Devonshire at a pace unprecedented in 1742. 



The proprietors, at variance on most matters, all 

 agreed that Shakespeare erred very considerably in his 

 estimation as to the importance of nomenclature. A 

 rose might thrive equally well under the unpoetical 

 designation of onion; horticulture was not their province 

 and they would not dispute the assertion, but coaches 

 were a very different matter, and there was no doubt 

 that the names painted on them very materially in- 

 fluenced their reputation and the class of their customers. 



This fail being indisputable, coach proprietors vied 

 with each other to invent names which should appeal 

 to the public, and indicate to a great degree the nature 

 of the coach, and the people it especially catered for. 

 Sportsmen would naturally choose to travel by coaches 

 whose very names caused their pulses to beat quicker, 

 and recalled the delights of field or turf, as The Berkeley 

 Hunt, The Beaufort Hunt, The Tally-ho, Hieover, 

 Hieaway, Hark Forward, Rover, Tantivy, Flying 

 Childers, Highmettled Racer, etc. 



For the young bloods, whose nerves were good and 

 whose fetish was speed, there were the coaches whose 

 names indicated furious velocity: The Quicksilver, 

 Meteor, The Dart, The Vivid, The Highflier, The 

 Rocket, The Express, The Lightning, The Rapid, 

 The Telegraph, and The Alert. 



