The Sport of Our Jincestors 



less than thirteen hundred horses at work, in various coaches^ 

 on various roads ; and Messrs. Home and Sherman, the 

 two next largest coach-proprietors in London, have about 

 seven hundred each. Those who have not witnessed it 

 might, perhaps, be still more astonished at the regularity 

 and ease with which these prodigious, apparently over- 

 whelming, establishments are conducted, by the means of 

 foremen and subordinates well trained to their business.^ 



It may not be uninteresting to the uninitiated to learn 

 how a coach is worked. We will, then, assume that A, B, C, 

 and D enter into a contract to horse a coach eighty miles, 

 each proprietor having twenty miles ; in which case he is 

 said to cover both sides oj the ground^ or to and fro. At the 

 expiration of twenty-eight days, the lunar month, a settle- 

 ment takes place ; and if the gross earnings of the coach 

 should be five pounds per mile, there will be four hundred 

 pounds to divide between the four proprietors, ajter the 

 following charges have been deducted ; viz., tolls, duty to 

 government, mileage (or hire of the coach, to the coach- 

 maker), two coachmen's wages, porters' wages, rent or 

 charge of booking-offices at each end, and washing the 

 coaches. These charges may amount to one hundred 

 pounds, which leaves three hundred pounds to keep eighty 

 horses and to pay the horse-keepers, for a period of twenty- 

 eight days, which gives, within a fraction, a pound a week 

 for each horse. Thus it appears that a fast coach, properly 



1 Mr. Chaplin is likewise proprietor of two London hotels, residing in 

 that called ' Osborne's ' in the Adelphi. 



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