DRIVING CLUBS, OLD AND NEW. 249 



In a poem entitled ' The Fall,' Sir John Birkenhead also 

 commemorates Cromwell's accident. Both of the foregoing 

 uncomplimentary rhymesters, however, fell upon evil times ; 

 Cleveland was imprisoned in Yarmouth gaol, whence he ad- 

 dressed to Cromwell a petition for his release ; and Sir John 

 Birkenhead was very nearly starved until, at the Restoration, he 

 obtained a lucrative appointment as one of the Masters of 

 Requests. 



Whatever else we learn of amateur coachmanship is very 

 fragmentary and wholly unimportant, until the end of the 

 eighteenth century, by which time the labours of McAdam 

 and Telford had begun to bear fruit. Roads were good, a 

 higher rate of speed was attained ; ' then,' in the words of a 

 grateful coachman of old time, ' came Mr. McAdam, with his 

 hammers, sand, and resin, and the crooked places were made 

 straight, and the rough places plain and hard.' The advent of 

 the famous road engineer was indeed the dawning of a new 

 era, for in the old days of bad roads the lot of -the coach 

 traveller was far from being a happy one. A coach, which 

 took four days to reach London from York, made its first 

 journey on Friday, April 12, 1706, the announcement being 

 made in the form of the advertisement on p. 250. 



In due course other stage-coaches made their appearance : 

 one between London and Dover was established on March 28, 

 1751, taking about thirty-six hours on the way, and having 'a 

 conveniency behind the coach for baggage and outside pas- 

 sengers.' About the same time there was coach communica- 

 tion between London and Edinburgh, as in 1754 the vehicle 

 previously in use was, ' for the better accommodation of pas- 

 sengers,' altered ' to a new genteel two-end glass coach machine, 

 .being on steel springs, exceeding light, and easy to go in ten 

 days in summer and twelve in winter.' In 1757 the merchants 

 of Liverpool organised their ' flying machine,' also on steel 

 springs, in imitation of the Manchester ' flying coach ; ' and as 

 time sped on, the business of coaching expanded; many of 

 the best known men of the day interested themselves in the 



