END OF THE COACHING AGE 281 



The Blossoms must speedily fade from the bough, 

 And ci'oss'd are the hopes of the Golden Cross now ; 

 The White Horse must founder, the Mountain fall down, 

 The Gloster be clos'd, and the Bear be done Broini 



The Eclipse is eclips'd, and the Sovereiijn is dead. 

 And the Red Rover now never roves from its shed ; 

 The Times are disjointed, the Blucher at peace, 

 And the Telegraph sliortly from working must cease. 



Tha Victory now must submit to defeat. 

 And the Wellington own he is cruelly beat ; 

 The sport is all up with the fam'd Tcdhj-Ho, 

 And the old Regidator no longer will go. 



Oh ! had I, dtar brethren, the muse of a Byron, 

 I'd write down the system of trav'Uing on iron ; 

 For flying like lightning but poorly atones 

 For crushing the carcase or breaking the bones. 



So, f. ire well to the Coach-box, farewell to the Vip ! 

 By Fate most unkind we are cotch'd on the hip ; 

 Then join, brother Dragsmen, in sorrowful chorus, 

 For at present there's nothing but ruin before us. 



On a few out-of-the-way routes, originally not 

 worth the while of railway companies to exploit, 

 coaching did, however, survive an incredi'ole time. 

 Cordery in 1796 painted the even then old- 

 estahlished Chesham coach, and coaches continued 

 to run into Buckinghamshire until quite recent 

 times. Ayleshury, Chesham, Amersham, and Wen- 

 dover only ohtained direct railway accommodation 

 Avlien the IMetropolitan Railway, under the lead of 

 Sir Edward Watkin, extended into the country 

 past HarroAV and Rickmansworth, reaching Ayles- 

 hury in 1802. The Amersham and "Wendover 

 coach — reallv hotter descril)ed as a three-horsed 



