CHAPTER XXV 



DRIVING AND TROTTING 



As I was reading the diary of Colonel Peter Hawker I 

 was struck with the constant reference to the sport he 

 enjoyed whilst travelling by stage-coach. For example, 

 descriptive of a journey by mail-coach to Exeter : — " We 

 were a delightfully jolly party, and, not being post day, 

 the mail stopped whenever we saw game, and during the 

 journey I killed four brace of partridges. When it was 

 too dark to shoot, our party mounted the roof and sang 

 choruses, in which the guard and coachman took a very 

 able part." 



There were fast coaches and slow coaches in the old 

 days. The Edinburgh mail ran 400 miles in 40 hours, 

 stoppages included. The Exeter day coach did 173 miles 

 in 17 hours, and the Devonport mail 227 miles in 22 hours ; 

 but the Shrewsbury and Chester " Highflyer" usually took 

 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. to do its 40 miles over a good road. 

 It was a free and easy, no-hurry sort of coach. If a 

 commercial traveller wanted to do a little business on 

 the road, or a gentleman wanted to call upon a friend, 

 the coachman was always willing to pull up and bide 

 their time. There were houses of call where half an hour 

 soon slipped away with a pleasant landlord or pretty bar- 

 maid. Then there was the dinner at Wrexham, for which 

 two hours were allowed ; and at the end of that time 

 coachie would thrust his jolly face in at the door and 

 say, " The coach is ready, gen'l'men ; but if yer wish for 

 another bottle, don't let me disturb yer." 



The costume of the celebrated Driving Club, when it 

 met in Hyde Park in 181 1, would very much surprise 

 the coaching clubmen of the present day. A light, drab- 



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