BRIGHTON, BATH, AND DOVER ROADS. 245 



on the other two-thirds of the road I cannot think. About three 

 miles out of Devizes you come to Red Horn turnpike on the 

 edge of Salisbury Plain, and with the exception of the Bustard 

 Inn, half-way and about two miles from Stonehenge, and the 

 Druid's Head Inn and training stables about three or four 

 miles further on, there is not only not a village, but not a house, 

 in the twenty miles. The Great Western Railway branch by 

 Westbury and Warminster drove Stevens off the road, and 

 not long after the South-Western Railway opened their line 

 from London through Basingstoke and Andover through Salis- 

 bury to Exeter. 



The Dover road was always a very pleasant one to drive, 

 excepting the fearful hill on the south of Chatham, not far 

 from Brompton Barracks. Poor old Rickman, who was for 

 many years stationmaster of the Midland Station at Derby, 

 drove on this road. He was killed about the year 1879 

 or 1880 on the day they opened the loop enabling trains 

 running from London and Trent to go through to Normanton 

 or elsewhere without passing through Derby Station. He had 

 walked along the line to see that it was being worked all right, 

 and in coming back was run over and cut to pieces by a train. 

 He was an excellent servant of the company, and most civil 

 and obliging to the passengers. The three brothers Wright 

 had many pairs of post-horses, and horsed several, coaches. 

 One kept the Ship Hotel at Dover, the principal hotel till the 

 Lord Warden was built ; another kept the Fountain Hotel at 

 Canterbury, and was as well known and respected as the 

 Cathedral ; the third kept the Rose at Sittingbourne. When 

 the Dover Wright died, he was succeeded by Birmingham, 

 who had been commissioner to the hotel and used to take 

 one's keys, and get one's luggage through the Custom House. 

 When the Lord Warden was built, he took the hotel, and 

 eventually became Mayor of Dover, and used to receive the 

 potentates and princes who passed through. He was an ex- 

 cellent man and much respected. I knew him fifty years ago. 

 He has not been dead above three or four years. When 



