COACHES RACING. I59 



on the road, owing to intoxicated drivers, dense fogs, 

 heavy snow-storms, floods and the breaking of harness ; 

 and sometimes owing to the skid not locking the wheel 

 on descending a hill, their poles broke, reins sometimes 

 parted, and numerous other accidents occurred. 



Frequently coachmen would race against one 

 another, as w^as the case in 1820, when two coach- 

 men named Butler and Perdy were charged with 

 the wilful murder of William Hart, who was thrown 

 off the Holyhead mail of which Perdy was the driver, 

 and which was upset by the Chester mail of which 

 Butler was the driver. Lord W. Lennox says that 

 " The grand jury having thrown out the bill for the 

 capital offence, they were tried on a charge of man- 

 slaughter. Two witnesses who were suffering severely 

 from the accident made the following deposition : 



"j\Ir. Archer, a respectable bootmaker of Cheap- 

 side, London, stated that he sat on the box with the 

 prisoner Perdy. When the coach arrived at that 

 part of the road beyond Highgate, where a junction 

 is formed between the Archway Road and the old 

 Highgate Road, the Chester mail came up. Both 

 coachmen began to whip their horses and put them 

 into a gallop, and drove abreast of each other at a 

 furious rate for a considerable distance, when the 

 driver of the Chester mail slackened the pace of his 

 horses and seemed conscious of the impropriety of 

 his conduct ; but when the coaches approached to- 

 wards St. Albans, and had arrived at the hill about 

 a mile from the town, the prisoner Perdy put his 

 horses into a furious gallop down the hill. His 

 example was followed by the other prisoner, who 

 endeavoured to overtake him, and a most terrific 

 race ensued between the two carriages, the velocity 



