202 DRIVING. 



the best-appointed and fastest coach in England up to its last 

 journey. The entire distance (176 miles) was performed in 

 seventeen hours ; they stopped one hour for meals. 



Carter never remembers being late at the Bull Inn, Aldgate, 

 during the whole time he drove, except once, and then only seven 

 minutes ; but he was told of it by Mr. Nelson. This happened 

 to be a coach that he was more particular about than any other 

 in his establishment, having gone to great trouble and expense 

 in bringing it to the perfection it reached. All other Exeter 

 coaches being very slow, the people who horsed them ridiculed 

 the idea of his success, and declined horsing it over the same 

 ground, although they horsed his other Exeter coach. He was 

 not to be discouraged, sent horses all the way to Exeter, and 

 horsed the coach himself the entire journey from London to its 

 destination. By making punctuality the primary consideration 

 the coach became a very good property, and enabled Mr. Nelson 

 to sell all his horses, with the exception of two London stagers, 

 at a remunerative price. 



For some months before this coach ceased running to Exeter 

 the proprietors took advantage of the South-Western Railway 

 being open as far as Basingstoke by contracting with the com- 

 pany to carry the coach and passengers as far as they were 

 open, the proprietors paying the ordinary first and second class 

 fare for all passengers, the coach and either coachman or guard 

 to be conveyed free of charge. By this arrangement the coach 

 performed its journey to Exeter in two hours less time, leaving 

 the South-Western Railway Station, which was then at Nine 

 Elms, one hour later than it had left London theretofore, and 

 arriving in Exeter one hour earlier, during the whole of which 

 time, until the Great Western Railway opened throughout, the 

 coach loaded better than before. 



Curtis Brothers being the proprietors at Basingstoke, they 

 placed the London coachman on the coach to drive from 

 Basingstoke to meet the coach coming from Exeter, and on 

 one occasion an extraordinary incident occurred. The coach 

 passed many miles over a very extensive tract of country then and 



