THE COACHING REVIVAL. 281 



In the autumn of 1870, it was announced that Sir Henry 

 de Bathe and Colonel Withington would run a coach from 

 Hatchett's to the Fleur-de-Lys Hotel at Canterbury. It was 

 to be called the Old Stager, and its colours were to be those 

 of the I Zingari black, red and yellow a very sporting pro- 

 gramme indeed. 



At this juncture, the Hon. Sec., the indefatigable Mr. A. G. 

 Scott, had his say, and, having convinced Sir Henry and the 

 Colonel that they were about to embark on an undertaking 

 which would prove most unprofitable, succeeded in inducing 

 them to run from London to Dorking instead. They took 

 his advice, and were, in 1871, the first to open out this very 

 favourite road, with F. Moon as coachman and Simmons 

 as guard ; while, taking a leaf out of the Windsor book, the 

 coach ran to Epsom on all four days of the summer meeting 

 there. 



For some reason or other, the season was a very short one, 

 the coach being taken off the road on August 22? Neither 

 the Windsor nor Virginia \Vater road was taken this year ; but 

 the Tunbridge Wells and Brighton coaches showed no signs of 

 stopping, both being in the same hands as before, except that 

 Mr. Cooper joined the management of the latter, and Mr. 

 C. Smith was said to 'have a wheel.' The Brighton season 

 finished on October 21, and on the 23rd some of the regular 

 patrons of the coach organised a party to meet at the Chequers, 

 Horley (where, in 1867, the up and down coaches used to 

 meet as they did in 1888 for lunch), to wish well to 

 Tedder, the professional, who had become landlord of that 

 coaching inn. Colonel Tyrwhitt and Lord Norreys (the pre- 

 sent Earl of Abingdon), it should be added, started a coach 

 to Oatlands Park, with Timms as professional ; but this 

 turned out badly, while an attempt to carry coaching from 

 London to Southend, via Rochford in Essex, proved a mighty 

 fiasco. For a year or two previously Lord Bective had found 

 the horses, and had sometimes driven ; but he now withdrew, 

 and hence the sudden collapse, the coach making but one 



