3 12 STAGE-COACH AND MAIL IN DAYS OF YORM 



coach. Under the hox Avas " a spacious lock-up 

 receptacle for the stowage of luggage " ; so it was 

 a " safety " coach in more than one particular, 

 and the local ncAvspaper was of oj)inion that " the 

 confidence which manufacturers and dealers have 

 of their valuable j^roperty being secured from wet 

 and pilfering is enough to secure for it the most 

 decided preference, independently of its personal 

 safety." So great was the interest taken at 

 Brighton in this pioneer of safety coaches that 

 an enormous crowd of nearly two thousand persons 

 assembled to witness the departure on its first 

 journey, Sunday, March 21st, 1819. It made the 

 passage to London in six hours ; a speed quite up 

 to the level of the usual performances. 



The popularity of the " Sovereign " was so 

 great and immediate that other coach-proprietors 

 lost no time in having " safeties " built. The next 

 to take the road was the "Umpire,'' in July of the 

 same year, followed by the " Dart " and " Hero." 

 These were all swift, as , well as safe. A similar 

 Patent Safety was Matthews's coach. The jiro- 

 prietor of the " Comet " adoj^ted it for a time, as 

 shown in the old print engraved here. 



The inevitable debasement of the specific term 

 " safety," and its general application at the whim 

 of jjroprietors, quite irrespective of safety con- 

 struction, is found beginning in 1821, with the 

 advertisement of Whitchurch, Best & Wilkins, 

 of Brighton, in which, Avhile the public were 

 reminded that the firm were the first to run a 

 coach to London in six hours, returning the same 



