DRIVING CLUBS, OLD AND NEW. 259 



field, and so it continued to the year 1853 or 1854. By this 

 time, it must be remembered, the ' palmy days ' of coaching 

 were over ; the train had driven most of the coaches off the 

 road ; and amateur driving was no longer influenced and in- 

 spired by the real business. Moreover, many members of the 

 B.D.C. were well stricken in years \ while, lastly, the Crimean 

 war had broken out. Each of these circumstances had, without 

 doubt, its influence upon the B.D.C., and contributed its 

 share towards the breaking up of the club in the years 1853 

 and 1854, when, after an uninterrupted existence of forty-six 

 years, it was dissolved, the bars were hung up, private fours-in- 

 hand seemed likely to become as extinct as the quadriga, and 

 the driving of four horses a lost art. 



There was one amateur, however, who still remained faith- 

 ful to the amusement in which he had for so long a period ex- 

 celled. In the last of his papers upon the ' Four Georges ' 

 written in 1852 Thackeray says : 



Where my Prince did actually distinguish himself was in 

 driving. He drove once in four hours and a half from Brighton 

 to Carlton House fifty-six miles. All the young men of that day 

 were fond of the sport. But the fashion of rapid driving deserted 

 England, and, I believe, trotted over to America. Where are the 

 amusements of our youth ? I hear of no dicing now but amongst 

 obscure ruffians ; and no boxing except amongst the lowest rabble. 

 One solitary four-in-hand still drove round the Parks in London 

 last year ; but that charioteer must soon disappear. He was very 

 old ; he was attired after the fashion of the year 1825. He must 

 drive to the banks of the Styx before long, where the ferry-boat 

 waits to carry him over to the defunct revellers, who boxed and 

 gambled, and drank, and drove, with him who died George IV. 



This ' solitary charioteer ' was none other than Sir Henry 

 Peyton, whose yellow coach and grey horses had been, for 

 many, many years, a familiar sight at the gatherings of the 

 B.D.C., and in London. Ten grey horses was the average 

 strength of his coach stable ; he drove all the year round ; when 

 not in London, his coach was invariably to be found in Oxford- 

 shire, either between Swift's House and Oxford,. or, laden with 



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