THE COACHING REVIVAL. 299 



of time he managed Mr. Pawley's yard at Hastings. His 

 connection with coaching, given in the foregoing pages, dates 

 from 1872 ; but he was a busy man, and besides keeping 

 commission stables in the Edgware Road, started a short 

 time ago a business as coachbuilder in conjunction with Mr. 

 Cowlard, who had formerly been in the employ of Messrs. 

 Holland at the time that well-known firm miled nearly all the 

 stage-coaches. Poor Selby was a genial kind-hearted man, 

 and will be much missed in coaching circles. From having 

 driven in and out of London, summer and winter, for so long, 

 his face was perhaps better known than that of any other 

 coachman. His effects were sold at Aldridge's on Wednesday, 

 January 2, 1889, and realised phenomenal prices. The Old 

 Times itself was bought for 290 guineas by Selby's subscribers, 

 Messrs. H. L. Beckett, A. M'Adam, W. Dickson, A. Broad- 

 wood, and Carleton Blyth. Two pairs of whips brought 

 20 guineas, while 26 guineas were paid for two coach-horses. 



Such is a brief outline of the coaching revival, and if the 

 modern stage-coaches are not so numerous as they were a few 

 years ago, no surprise need be felt at a period like the present 

 when railway travelling is so expeditious and cheap, and the 

 majority of travellers care much more about reaching their 

 journey's end quickly than about the means of transit. Most 

 people, for example, would probably prefer to go to Brighton 

 and return in the newly-started and luxurious Pulman train to 

 going down on a coach and cutting short their stay at the so- 

 called ' Queen of watering-places.' Moreover, the running of 

 coaches as mediums for advertising has not commended itself 

 to many who would otherwise patronise the road. When the 

 revival commenced in 1866, and for some years subsequently, 

 the coaches were almost exclusively in the hands of those who 

 remembered coaching in pre-railroad days ; and those gentle- 

 men had a strong personal following which materially helped 

 to load the coaches. However, it is to be hoped that coach- 

 ing will never die out ; if it does, there is some chance of old 

 traditions being forgotten. Like the war songs of the savages 



