CH. XX 465 



CHAPTER XX 

 PUBLIC COACHING GENERALLY 



Speed. — On good roads the proper pace for a 

 public-coach is ten miles an hour including- changes : 

 if it is made much faster, it may be difficult to keep 

 time, but if the quality of the horses, and their 

 consequent cost, is no object, ten and a half miles 

 may be attempted. Less than nine miles is too 

 slow to be entertaining- either to coachman or to 

 passengers. 



The time of some of the public-coaches running 

 in the past few years, is as follows : London and 

 Brighton, 54 miles in 6 hours, — 9 miles an hour ; 

 New York and Tuxedo, 47 J 4 miles in 5 L> hours 

 (leaving out the time for lunch), — 9 miles an hour ; 

 London and Guildford, 28 I 4 miles in 3 hours, — 

 9*^ miles an hour; New York and Pelham, 15^2 

 miles in \ Y / 2 hours, — 10V3 m il es an hour ; Paris and 

 Maisons-Laffitte, 19^2 miles in two hours, — 9^ miles 

 an hour ; Paris and Pontoise, 26 L3 miles in 2^ 

 hours, — a little over gji miles an hour. In all 

 these cases the time of making the changes is 

 included, so that the actual driving time is faster. 



In old coaching days in England, the mail-coach 

 rates of speed were from 9.4 miles an hour to 10.3 ; 

 the majority running about 9.5. The 'Telegraph,' 



