^Nimrod ' 



minutes were usually allocated to breakfast and forty minutes 

 to luncheon. The operation of changing horses was accom- 

 plished in less than a minute. Wonderful work ! No 

 chain, buckle, trace, or rein was ever handled twice. One 

 of the most memorable feats on the Road took place during 

 the coaching revival, some forty years after the railroads 

 were started. Over twelve miles an hour was the pace 

 sustained when Jim Selby drove from London to Brighton 

 and back, covering the whole distance of a hundred miles 

 in seven hours and fifty minutes. This achievement in 

 the annals of the Road finds its counterpart in the annals 

 of the Chase in the match between Mr. Smith-Barry's Blue- 

 cap and Wanton on one side, and on the other a couple of 

 Hounds belonging to Mr. Meynell, over the Beacon Course 

 at Newmarket, a distance of four and a half miles, which 

 Bluecap covered at a rate of over twenty-four miles an hour. 

 Wanton, sired by Bluecap, came in second ; Mr. MeynelFs 

 Hounds were nowhere. These two events are the out- 

 standing records of speed in the history of The Chase and 

 The Road. 



The road coaches had just about reached perfection 

 when they were supplanted by the railroads, at a time 

 when the service of the best of them was as perfect as 

 human skill could make it. The coachmen, the guards, 

 and the ostlers all provided highly-skilled labour, and took 

 a pride in their work. The coaches and the tackle were 

 the best that the world has ever produced It is true that 

 the horses did not cost much money, but no amount of 



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