OLD COACHING DAYS. 175 



between the different towns, charging them a shilling or half-a- 

 crown, according to the distance, and to put these small sums 

 into their own pockets ; and as these short passengers handed 

 the money to the coachman over his shoulder before alighting, 

 this custom was called shouldering. Foreigners were much 

 struck with this procession of the mails. I and other gen- 

 tlemen who were interested in coaching always rode round 

 with them on horseback. The last procession took place in 

 May 1838 ; there were then twenty-seven mail coaches in 

 London ; the Earl of Lich field was Postmaster-General, and 

 Mr. George Louis was Superintendent of the New Post Office. 



I belonged to the B.D.C., or Bedfont Driving Club ; an 

 association which had about thirty members. We dined there, 

 at the Black Dog, three times during the summer. The Club 

 was formerly held at Benson, near Oxford, but Bedfont was 

 much more convenient. It was a pretty sight, about eleven at 

 night, when starting for London, to see all the coaches in the 

 yard, all the lamps lit, and teams of divers colours. I regret 

 that I have not retained the list of the members of the Club, 

 but it included Lord Sefton, Sir Henry Peyton, Messrs. Ville- 

 bois, Bunbury, Kenyon, Spicer, Sumner, and many others. 

 We also had a very pleasant coach dinner in Botham's, at Salt 

 Hill ; the Duke of Beaufort, Lord Chesterfield, Counts d'Orsay 

 and Batthyany, and a host of others, sat down to the number of 

 about fifty ; the hours were small when we reached Kensington 

 Corner. 



The Bath road was in excellent order, as there were pumps 

 at short intervals for watering the road all the way to the 

 western city. There were several excellent coaches on this 

 road the 'York House' to Bath, the 'Berkeley Hunt' and 

 ' Tantivy ' to Cheltenham. About this time some of the coach- 

 ing men l put a very smart Windsor coach on the road called 

 the 'Taglioni,' with a picture on the hind boot of the danseuse 



1 The Earl of Chesterfield and Count (afterwards Prince) Batthyany. It 

 was a two-end coach. Charley Jones (a brother of the former Sir Henry 

 Tyrwhitt) and young Dick Brackenbury were the coachmen. B. 



