DRIVING CLUBS, OLD AND NEW. 271 



Each club has two parades a year, the Four-in-Hand Driving 

 Club generally meeting at the Magazine on the Wednesday 

 before the Derby, and later in the season on the Horse Guards 

 Parade ; while the Coaching Club holds its first levee on the 

 Saturday next but one before the Derby, and its last shortly 

 after Ascot. This, at least, is the recognised programme, 

 though, from unavoidable circumstances, it has of recent years 

 been more often the exception than the rule. 



The Four-in-Hand Driving Club, being much smaller and 

 more exclusive, does not generally turn out in such large 

 numbers as the junior club, which, on two or three occasions, 

 has mustered over thirty. In 1880, at the meet of the 

 F.H.D.C., twenty-two members turned out, and the same 

 number were counted at the corresponding gathering in 1881. 

 In 1882 the number dropped to fourteen, but rose to twenty- 

 two again in 1886. The meets and the parades of these clubs 

 are often patronised by the Prince and Princess of Wales, the 

 former of whom occasionally occupies the box-seat of one of 

 the coaches, and by other members of the Royal Family. The 

 crowds that assemble far exceed in magnitude any others that 

 are ever seen at any time in the Park, while the show of 

 magnificent horses and carriages can scarcely be equalled, let 

 alone surpassed, in the whole wide world. 



Neither club has a house of its own, and on the meeting 

 days, after the drive round the Park in parade order is over, 

 the members generally disperse, some going down in a body 

 to luncheon at Greenwich or Richmond, the Crystal Palace, 

 the Hurlingham or Ranelagh Club, or elsewhere, the others 

 merely to take a turn round the Park again. Several years ago 

 the Road Club was established in Park Place by Major Furnivall 

 as a home for the coaching fraternity, and at first it answered 

 very well, kept a coach of its own for a season or two, and was 

 a very comfortable house ; but other attractions, not so inno- 

 cent as the road, crept in : Major Furnivall at last left the sink- 

 ing ship, and in a short time it ceased to have the remotest 

 connection with coaching. In 1875, the late Mr. Hurman, 



