DRIVING CLUBS, OLD AND NEW. 253 



fashion, and the changes in dress in the course of three-quarters 

 of a century, there was something rather outre in this attire. 

 Charles Mathews, the elder, ever on the watch for a subject 

 for travesty, caricatured the uniform of the Four- Horse Club 

 in ' Hit and Miss,' and thereby brought upon himself the wrath 

 of the coaching fraternity, one of whom professed to see in the 

 comedian's get-up a likeness to himself. ' Hit and Miss,' how- 

 ever, ran its course, and was laughed at by the public. Joseph 

 Grimaldi, too, the famous clown, made capital out of the dress 

 in one of his comic scenes. After the fashion of clowns, he 

 stole a blanket which served for a coat ; this he decorated 

 with cheese-plates (the result of a second theft) for buttons ; 

 and a cabbage served for a bouquet. A landau and wheels was 

 extemporised out of a cradle and some cheeses, and a toy- 

 shop burglary yielded four blotting-paper horses. Behind this 

 team Grimaldi took his seat, and, after having in pantomimic 

 action filed his front teeth, in imitation of one or two amateurs 

 who had in that particular copied certain professionals, was 

 drawn across the stage amidst much whistling and whip-flourish- 

 ing. This, however, was taken in good part ; indeed, the 

 travesty soon became popular, and all the coaching men in 

 London filled the boxes at the theatre to witness Grimaldi's 

 scene. 



The first meeting of the Four-Horse Club was held in April 

 1808, and the subsequent days of meeting were the first and 

 third Thursdays in May and June. The members assembled 

 at Mr. Buxton's house in Cavendish Square, and drove down 

 to Salt Hill to dinner, patronising the Windmill and the Castle 

 alternately. At one of the club dinners a controversy arose 

 concerning the merits of the two houses ; both had their advo- 

 cates, and, as the question of supremacy could not be satisfac- 

 torily settled by the experience of the past, it was resolved to 

 give both landlords notice of the dispute, and to notify the fact 

 that, in the next season, the usual visits would be made with the 

 special object of deciding in favour of one or the other. In due 

 course May arrived, and the first visit was to the Castle. The 



