The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1908-05-26

The last OF the yearly parades OF the
rea! mail coaches In London took place
IN 1888. .',rhe road came to an end in
1890" That Is now that Disraelian
hero, Lord Algernon Saint Maur, cx-
presses the death of genuine businesE
coaching in England. Oddly enough
uniquely perhaps, the more of a bust
ness coaching was, the more OF sport
II was considered. Lord Algernon
saint Maur is sad and contempt,lous
about pleasure coaching" which he
gives as the opposite OF "the road
When "the road" came to an end he
himself went In for pleasure coach :
ing. but, he says, 1t seemed sadly
tame and lifeless. There was no aim
IN 1t. no reason for going long way,
no practice In handling all sorts OF
teams. He gives an instance Of such
practice. Once In the good old times
when he was driving the Davenport
stage "a 227-mile run from London)
a ,hostler at some remote country inn
reached after dark asked him II he
had noticed anything peculiar about
the horses, which were being taken
out then. no." said Lord Algernon
except that they went bit Wide Mt
first" There isn't an eye among the
four" said the hostler.
Tiehsure COachlnE. pure and simple,
which Lord Algernon finds so insipid
was quite as old as the road Oliver
Cromwell was one of its first amateurs,
and in his time there were very few
business coaches on the road IL there
We're any. But pleasure coach ing. In
imitation OF "the road"-a different
matter-is quite modern 1t began
about 1864 when some amateurs, REM
iniscent of the glories and strenuosi-
ties OF the old stage journeys. started,
in expensive competition with the I'M
romantic railroads, various coaches out
of London, inviting thereto. not only
to relieve the strain on their purses,
but to make the thing more real" the
sentimental patronage OF the public,
and copying the past as closely as pos
sible. The revival of coaching" in the
sixties. as this pastichc Is called in
England, has gone on pretty steadily,
and this year five or six such histrionic
vehicles are plying from the capital.
Mr.. A. G. Vanderbilt, who opened his
session on the classic Brighton roai
last week, which road he apparently
now has to himself. is not the first
American to assist in the English "re-
vival." Twenty or thirty years ago Mr..
Tiffany horsed and drove a Brighton
coach for one season, and we'll known
'on the bench" In England for longer
than that was Colonel De Lanecy Kane
Mr.. Eanderbilt's enterprise Is most
purely american, for he has Imported
all the thirty-four horses he Is using
from this side.
Mr.. Vanderbilt. we gather. is follow
Ing what used to"be called the Short
Brighton road--a distance rather IN
side of sixty miles. Changing horses
eight times he divides the run into
nine stages, averaging a little over six
miles for each Including stops he GOV.
ers the whole distance In six hours. IN
an these respects he faithfully observes
.he traditions Of the road-for regular
business running.
VI course he is not racing or ,naljnr
any attempt to startle Englishmen he
his pace His ideal seems rather n ~
Loyalty conservative. Five ana ha1f
hours was an average time for tho fast
e-raliroad business coaches, and the
distance has been covered under four
hours. In 1883 James Selby, a remark.
aple whip. drove to Brighton and bacl,
IN seven hours and fifty minutes. This
rs still record. The road il fairly
hllly, crossing two ranges OF stlff
downs and on the level stretchas |
selby did at least twenty miles an
hour. This clip" was by no means un-
known In classic times. The fifty miles
between oxford and London, for In
stance. were on one recorded occasion
at least covered in three hours and six
Teen minutes. which meant not less than
twenty miles an hour in spots.
We learn from cablegram describ-
ing MY. Vanderbilt's first "tool' to
Brighton that Some veterans shifted
little at the average time in making
chang -, which was three minutes, talk |
Ing reminiscentY of the forty-fiv Sec
end changes made by tho old Brighton
coaches"
These veterans evidently shifted and
reminisced in vain. On Selby's record |
trip one change was made In forty
seven seconds and one in one minute
and five seconds. But this trip was, ,of
course, quite abnormal affair-in
fact, a race for a wager. .Nimrod" In
his celebrated essays written in tho
Turtles, says: The four horses can !
be changed in sixty seconds A quar-
ter of an hour. or at least ten min
utes was the usual time when I first
knew the road, but at the present day.
unless there is delay through pas