The Sport of Our <tAncestors 



would say ; * but don't let me disturb you, if you wish for 

 another bottle/ A coach now runs over this ground a trifle 

 under jour hours \ 



The Brighton road may be said to be covered with coaches, 

 no less than twenty-five running upon it in the summer. 

 The fastest is the Vivid, from the Spread Eagle, Gracechurch 

 Street, which performs the journey in five hours and a quarter. 

 That called the Age, when driven and horsed by the late 

 Mr. Stevenson, was an object of such admiration at Brighton 

 that a crowd was every day collected to see it start. Mr. 

 Stevenson was a graduate of Cambridge ; but his passion 

 for the bench got the better of all other ambitions, and he 

 became a coachman by profession ; — and it is only justice 

 to his memory to admit that, though cut off in the flower 

 of his youth, he had arrived at perfection in his art. His 

 education and early habits had not, however, been lost upon 

 him ; his demeanour was always that of a gentleman ; and 

 it may be fairly said of him, that he introduced the pheno- 

 menon of refinement into a stage-coach. At a certain change 

 of horses on the road, a silver sandwich-box was handed to 

 his passengers by his servant, accompanied by the offer of 

 a glass of sherry to such as were so inclined. Well-born 

 coachmen prevail on this road. A gentleman connected with 

 the first families in Wales, and whose father long represented 

 his native county in Parliament, horsed and drove one side 

 of the ground with Mr. Stevenson ; and Mr. Charles Jones, 

 brother to Sir Thomas Tyrwhit Jones, had a coach on it 

 called the Pearl, which he both horsed and drove himself ; 



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