OLD COACHING DAYS. 187 



The road came to an end in 1840, but it was not till some ten 

 years had elapsed that the Tunbridge, Brighton, and Dorking 

 coaches were put on the road. During these years everything 

 appeared to have got out of gear. The new coaches were 

 badly built, good crops or whips were not to be found, and 

 nearly everything connected with coaching cost more than 

 double, especially horses. I have had a few drives on these 

 pleasure-coaches, but must confess that I never had the same 

 joyous sensation as of yore, when mounting the box of the 

 'Quicksilver' Mail or the Exeter 'Telegraph,' for a journey of 

 two hundred miles. It seemed so very tame by comparison, 

 just driving a few miles out of London and back again ; but I 

 am very glad that good coaches and horses have not altogether 

 disappeared, and that the love of the road survives so strongly 

 as it evidently does. Some of these coaches load well, are 

 well horsed, and well driven ; the chief fault to be found is 

 with regard to the time lost in changing horses, sometimes five 

 or ten minutes, which time the horses have to make up. In 

 old days, two minutes was deemed quite sufficient. Till invited 

 to do so, it never entered my head to write about driving, but 

 now I wish I had retained one half of the coaching songs, 

 anecdotes, and other matters, which might have interested or 

 amused those who still care about coaching. I remember a 

 few lines of a coaching song, written by an old friend in 1835, 

 as under : 



Some people delight in the sports of the turf, 



Whilst others love only the chase ; 

 But to me the delight of all others is 



A coach that can go the pace. 

 There are some too for whom the sea has its charms, 



And who sing of it night and morn, 

 But give me a coach with its rattling bars, 



And a guard who can blow his horn. 



How the girls all doat on the sight of a coach, 



And the dragsman's curly locks, 

 As he rattles along with eleven and four 



And a petticoat on the box ; 



