2i 4 DRIVING. 



which he delighted, his father being proprietor of the Railway 

 Hotel, Colney Hatch, to which a large livery-stable business 

 was attached. James Selby's professional career opened about 

 1870, when he began to drive the Tunbridge Wells coach, 

 owned by Lord Bective, and on this he continued for five 

 summers, occupying his winters on the St. Albans road. In 

 the summer of 1876 the late Lord Helmsley, Colonel Chaplin, 

 and Lord Arthur Somerset ran the coach to Tunbridge 

 Wells, Selby retaining his position ; in 1877-8 he drove from 

 Beckenham to London and back for Mr. Charles Hoare, 

 and in the autumn of the latter year Selby's own coach, the 

 Old Times, was put on the St. Albans road. The venture 

 was highly successful, and in 1879 the Old Times did a 

 double journey, starting from West Wickham at 8 A.M., going 

 through Beckenham to London, and arriving at Hatchett's 

 at 10.30. It then left for St. Albans at u A.M., and reached 

 the Cellar again at 6 P.M., when Selby once more took up his 

 passengers for the return journey to West Wickham. This was 

 hard work, for he had to reach his home in St. John's Wood 

 to sleep, and to leave not later than 6 A.M. the next morning. 

 In the winter of 1 880-81 the Old Times coach went to 

 Windsor, and in the summer of the same year it was put on to 

 Virginia Water, on which road it continued until the summer 

 of 1888, going in the winter only as far as Oatlands Park. 

 Last winter (1888), however, the Old Times started for its 

 journey to Brighton. Major Dixon, Sir Thomas Peyton, and 

 Sir Henry de Bathe were his first subscribers on the Old Times 

 coach in 1878, Major Dixon remaining with him, his firm friend 

 and patron, until his death in 1886. On January 18, 1881, the 

 Old Times had a memorable journey, the only passengers being 

 Major Dixon and Selby. They drove to Windsor in a severe 

 snowstorm, Selby being forced on his return home to have his 

 hat thawed, it being * frozen to his head.' The coach ran these 

 eleven years without intermission, Sundays and Christmas Days 

 excepted. In the spring of 1879, Selby went to Paris and 

 started a coach for Captain Cropper, which ran from Paris to 



