COACHING 



fatalities, to say nothing of broken limbs, that at last general 

 outcry arose for more stringent repressive measures : and in 

 1820 a law (1 Geo. iv., c. 4) was passed, making coachmen 

 who might be guilty of ' wanton or furious driving or racing ' 

 liable to imprisonment as well as to fine, even though their 

 proceedings were not brought to a close by overturning the 

 coach. The new law did not make an end of accidents : on 

 the whole there were fewer as the result of racing, but the 

 records of the time bear ample witness to lack of ordinary 

 caution. 



For many years Macadam and Telford had been devoting 

 their ingenuity to the task of solving the secret of road-making ; 

 it was not until 1818 that the Macadam system was finally 

 approved and adopted. Then the work of remaking the roads 

 of the kingdom was taken in hand, and the new highways, 

 when constructed, ushered in the brief ' golden age ' of coach- 

 ing — say 1825 to 1838, the mails having been transferred to the 

 railways in the latter year. 



Nimrod's famous essay, written in 1835, shows in con- 

 vincing fashion the difference between coaching in the olden 

 days and at its best : — 



' May we be permitted, since we have mentioned the 

 Arabian Nights, to make a little demand on our readers' fancy, 

 and suppose it possible that a worthy old gentleman of this 

 said year — 1742 — had fallen comfortably asleep a la Dodswell, 

 and never awoke till Monday morning in Piccadilly ? " What 

 coach, your honour ? " says a ruffianly-looking fellow, much 

 like what he might have been had he lived a hundred years 

 back. " I wish to go home to Exeter," replies the old gentle- 

 man mildly. " Just in time, your honour, here she comes — 

 them there grey horses ; where 's your luggage ? " " Don't 

 be in a hurry," observes the stranger ; " that 's a gentleman's 

 carriage." " It ain't ! I tell you," says the cad ; " it 's the 

 Comet, and you must be as quick as lightning." Nolens 

 volens, the remonstrating old gentleman is shoved into the 

 Comet, by a cad at each elbow, having been three times assured 

 R 129 



