COACHING COMPETITION 95 



saddle-cloths, whilst the stable-boys decorated them 

 with rosettes and arches of flowers over their heads. 

 Coachmen and guards cut a brave dash in new scarlet 

 coats, white breeches, top boots, white hats, and wearing 

 large bouquets of flowers. The coachmen had their whips 

 tied with coloured ribbons, and the guards' bugles were 

 equally gay. Festoons of evergreens and flowers hung 

 down the sides of the coach, and gaily coloured arches 

 spanned the luggage on the roof. 



The villages on the different roads had a merry time 

 of it when the May-Day coaches raced on their way 

 enveloped in clouds of dust, as they bravely endeavoured 

 to break all records in the matter of speed. 



One of the most famous May-Day feasts was the race 

 between the Age and the Royal William which for a long 

 time ran in opposition on the Oxford Road. So keen was 

 the rivalry, and so thoroughly did the different horse- 

 keepers enter into the quarrel, that the whole length of 

 the road was impregnated with the question of their 

 superiority. One of the ostlers of the Age arranged a 

 string of stable buckets across the road with the avowed 

 intention of delaying the Royal William. The Koyal 

 William, however, was not going to be stopped by a 

 miserable device of the opposition, and when Major 

 Fane, an amateur driving at the time, saw the array of 

 buckets designed for his undoing, he gathered his team 

 together, put them at a gallop, and charged straight for 

 the obstacle, cleared them in safety and went on tri- 

 umphant, leaving the Age buckets a mass of splinters on 

 the road. 



