COACH-PROPRIETORS 195 



of coaches on a road to " nurse " a rival, not 

 always A\'ith the hope of earniui; a profit for 

 himself, hut Avith the idea of cuttini,^ up another 

 man's ground. 



The most outstanding figure among coach- 

 proprietors Avas that of AVilliam Cliai)lin. lie 

 towered ahove all his contemporaries in the 

 masjnitude of his husiness, and was, Avlien rail- 

 Avays came to destroy it, first among those fcAv 

 Avho saw the folly of opposing steam, and Avere 

 both acute enough and sufficiently fortunate to 

 reap an additional adA antage from the ucaa' order 

 of things, instead of heing ruined hy it, as many 

 less fortunate and less far-seeing men Avere. 



William James Chaplin — to give him his full 

 haptismal name— Avas horn at Eochestcr in 1787, 

 the son of AVilliam Chaplin, at that time a coach- 

 man and proprietor in a small AAay of husiness 

 on the Dover lload. Shortly after that date it 

 Avould appear that the elder Chaplin extended 

 his operations, and hecame a coach-master on a 

 considerahle scale on some of the main roads 

 leading out of London. However that may have 

 heen, certain it is that his son Avas a practical 

 coachman, and thoroughly versed in every detail 

 of driving and stahling, as Avell as huying horses. 

 To this intimate acquaintance Avitli the conduct 

 of a coach and of a coaching husiness, as greatly 

 as to his OAvn native shrewdness, he OAved the 

 extraordinary success that attended him. His 

 centre of operations Avas at the " Swan with Tavo 

 Necks," in Lad Lane, Avliere he succeeded AA'illiam 



