THE GOLDEN AGE, 1824— 1848 185 



attaining, between the stages, a si^eecl of nearly 

 12 miles an hour, and an average speed, 

 including stops, of 11 miles, while a quite 

 ordinary performance with the Shrewsbury 

 "Wonder " was 158 miles in 11 hours 15 minutes, 

 including stops on the way totalling 80 minutes. 

 This gives a net average speed of a little over 

 \\\ miles an hour. The Manchester "Tele- 

 graph " and other flyers made equally good 

 performances. The " Tantivy," one of the most 

 famous of coaches, did not equal these feats. 



The " Tantivy," London and Birmingham 

 coach, was started in 1832. It left the " Blossoms " 

 inn, Lawrence Lane, at 7 a.m., and Avas in' 

 Birmingham by 7 p.m. The distance, by the 

 route followed, through Maidenhead, Henley, 

 Oxford, Woodstock, Shipston-on-Stour, and Strat- 

 ford-on-Avon, Avas 125 miles, and, deducting one 

 hour for changing and refreshing, the speed Avas 

 only sliglitly over 11 miles an hour. This coach 

 derived its name from the old Avord " Tantivy " — 

 an imitative sound as old as the seventeenth 

 century, and often used in the literature of that 

 time, supposed to reproduce the note of the 

 huntsman's horn, and conjuring up ideas of 

 speed. For Cracknell, the most famous of the 

 coachmen of the " Tantivy," Avho once drove the 

 125 miles at one sitting, and generally drove 

 it between London and Oxford, the "Tantivy 

 Trot," quoted elscAvhere in these pages, Avas 

 Avritten. Harry Salisbury drove between Oxford 

 and Birmingham. Among its other coachmen Avas 



