328 HIGHWAYS AND HORSES. 



the horses are generally well-bred and a good-looking 

 lot ; but from what I have seen of the many meets of 

 the Coaching Club which have been held during the 

 two past seasons in Hyde Park, I cannot extend to 

 them the same amount of praise : a more indifferent- 

 looking lot of horses it has rarely been my lot to 

 behold. Before the Four-in-Hand Club was estab- 

 lished there were many other driving clubs, but when 

 driving four horses not attached to the mail or stage- 

 coaches, it was frequently the habit to make use of a 

 barouche with a high driving seat, and a rumble behind 

 for the two grooms. 



A correspondent of the Spotting Gazette of the 

 5th of June, 1880, speaks as follows of a meet of the 

 Four-in-Hand Club at the Magazine in Hyde Park : 



Two-and-twenty was the number — a much larger one than ex- 

 pected — whom Lord Aveland, in the absence of tlie Duke of Beaufort 

 and Lord Carington, led off down the drive. The Crystal Palace 

 for luncheon was the supposed destination of the club ; but of course 

 there was the usual falling out, and a great many "scratched" at 

 Hyde Park Corner and in Belgrave Square. It is long since either 

 club has mustered in any numbers at the Crystal Palace, the horrors 

 of the tram having acted as a deterrent to many coachmen. In the 

 early days of the C.C., and when afternoon meets were the fashion, 

 there were one or two very pleasant dinners at the Palace — and an 

 awkward place to get away from it was after dinner, we remember — 

 but these gatherings seem of the past. We are inclined to regret 

 this. We all know what cohesive and cementing powers there are in 

 a dinner. Both the Four-in-Hand and the C.C. are clubs without a 

 local habitation, and to meet twice a year or so at a particular spot 

 in the Park is all that they do to keep up the club idea and the name. 

 We are not for a moment believers that coaching will suffer because 

 coachmen do not dine ; but yet it is just possible that that thoroughly 

 English institution, a dinner, might help to keep the fire aglow, and, 

 supposing such a necessity should arise, rekindle the fading embers. 

 We beg to submit the idea to the noble presidents and vice-presidents 

 of both institutions.* 



The Coaching Club meet on Wednesday, June 16, and drive to 

 Hurlingham for luncheon. 



* Since this letter appeared the Badminton and Road Clubs 

 have been established. 



