CHAPTEE III. 



THE OLD COACHING ROADS. 



Since the day when mail-coaches ceased running, 

 and the annual procession of the mails on the Queen's 

 birthday was discontinued some forty years since, no 

 opportunity has existed of seeing any number of 

 four-horse coaches together except at the annual 

 meets of the Four-in-hand and Coaching Clubs. 

 Although these two clubs have only been instituted 

 since the days> of regular coach-travelling, there 

 appears long anterior to that time to have been an 

 amateur coaching club of some description or other. 

 So long since as the year 1806, there was the Driving- 

 Club, the favourite rendezvous of which was the 

 Black Dog at Bedfont, on the road from Hounslow to 

 Staines, and the members of the club used to drive 

 down from London, dine, and return in the evening, 

 the distance being just over thirteen mUes from Hyde 

 Park Corner. At the late meets of the Four-in-hand 

 and Coachifig Clubs in the Park nearly thirty coaches 

 appeared on each occasion, and the crowded state of 



