56 
time, a mail coach making its first trip in 
August, 1784, when the journey from Bristol 
to London, about 119 miles, was performed 
in 17 hours, or at a rate of 7 miles per hour. 
The era of macadamised roads, which was 
followed by the short “ golden age” of fast 
coaching, can hardly be said to belong to 
this reign, Mr. Macadam’s system of road- 
making having been generally adopted only 
in 1819. 
The founding of the Royal Veterinary 
College at Camden Town in 1791 was by 
no means the least important event of this 
reign; it is not too much to say that it 
marked an epoch in the history of the Horse ; 
for the establishment of this institution made 
an end of the quackery, often exceedingly 
cruel, which for centuries had passed for 
medical treatment of animals. Until the end 
of the eighteenth century English veterinary 
practitioners had been content to follow in 
the footsteps of such teachers as Gervaise 
Markham, who was the great authority on 
equine diseases two hundred years before : 
and the principles and practice of Gervaise 
Markham were hardly free from the taint 
of witchcraft and sorcery. Some of the more 
drastic and obviously useless remedies had 
been discredited and abandoned, but at the 
