FOX-HUNTING JEHUS 175 



travel to covert by motor-car. In the days of our 

 forefathers they were, of course, the main arteries 

 for traffic up and down England, and their mile- 

 stones, with distances marked in plain figures to or 

 from London, seem to put the country-side in touch 

 with the populous city which gains enchantment 

 when contemplated from a distance ! 

 Nothing short of a hundred miles from 

 the great metropolis can be considered 

 a safe distance to ensure tranquillity of 

 rural peacefulness or absence of smoke 

 taint to destroy the pure air, which is the 

 charm of Leicestershire or Lincolnshire. 



There are still a few people left to 

 compare the past with the present, and 

 from their account it would seem that 

 the dust and danger on the roads in the 

 coaching age was just as formidable as it 

 is to - day where there is heavy motor 

 traffic. For twenty years the roads were 

 well-nigh deserted when coaching went 

 out and steam came in, and it is to the 

 institution of the motor-car that we owe Tom 

 the better state of things from the general Hennesy's 

 use of the steam-roller. ^^ '^' 



As the saying is, "It is an ill wind that blows 

 nobody any good," and when the revival for driving 

 does set in, as sure enough it will when the craze 

 for speed has run itself out, then there will be the 

 perfect roadway such as our forefathers never 

 imagined. 



In the seventies we came under the influence of 

 a coaching celebrity, the late Mr. C. T. S. Birch 

 Reynardson, the squire of Holywell Hall in Rutland, 

 who frequently drove over to see my father, the late 

 Rev. Edward Bradley, rector of Stretton, a pretty 



