The sun., 1908-05-10

times, he divides the run into nine stages.
averaging little over six miles for each
Including stops, he covers the whol9
distance in six hours. In all these re-
speCts he faithfully observes the tradi-
tions Of the road-f regular business
running
or course he is not racing or making
any attempt to startle Englishmen by
his pace. His ideal seems rather to
be Loyalty conservative. Five and a
half hours was an average time for the
fast pre-railroad business coaches and
the distance has been covered under
four hours. In 1855 JAMES SELBY. a re-
markable whip, drove to Brighton and
back inseven hours and fifty minutes, This
is still a record The road is fairly hilly
crossing two ranges of stiff downs, and
on the level stretches SELBY did at least
twenty miles an hour. This clip" was
by no means unknown in classic times.
The fifty miles between Oxford and Lon
don, for instance, were on one recorded
occasion at least covered in three hours
and sixteen minutes, which meant not
less than twenty miles an hour in spots.
We learn from a cablegram describing
Mr.. VANDERBILTs first tool to Brigh-
ton that some veterans smiled a little
at the average time in making changes,
which was three minutes, talking remi-
niscently Of tle forty-fve second changes
made by the old Brighton coaches.
These veterans evidently shifted and
reminsced 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 wager. "Nimrod" in his celebrated
essays, written in the thirties, says: The
four horses can be changed in sixty sec
onds. A quarter of an hour or at least
ten minutes was the usual time when
| first knew the road but at the present
day, unless there is delay through pas
sengers or parcels, the average is three
minutes for fast coaches.
The length of Mr. VANDERBILTs
stages is also normal. According to
"Nimrod' again, fast coaches seldom
run more than ten mile stages, and
many not more than six They used,
indeed, TO do longer stages but "Nmrod'
praises the modern reduction Though
imported from France) as tending to
economize horseaesh in the end
SO the criticism of "the American
lightweight horses" reported in cable
despatch is beside the point. The veter-
ans seem to have maintained that half
the number Of the heavier English horses
would do the trip in equal time" The
question is, however whether those
heavier horses would he as fit" as MIR.
NANDERBTLT's grays at the end Of the
season; for this halying of the number !
Of horses would mean twelve mile stages
at least.
In his ordinary sober routine Mr.. VAN !
DERBILT is not out for a race. Possibly.
however, he may on some special occa-
sion be induced to try his American horsed |
coach against native team. II would Z!
be an interesting trial. and in thisyear Of |
many international contests in England |
il seems almost inevitable, The Argen- |
tine whip now running to Guidford might |
he invited to join in the race. If the |
event were brought Of, il would not be !
the first time that coaching in England has
been associated with the Olympic games
"Nimrod' drags those famous games
indeed into his apology for the gentle
man coachman, for even then, apparently.
some people wondered at the devotion of !
wealthy amateurs to stage driving.
" Nimrod' confidently remarks that for
over thousand years the highest honor
that could be bestowed on man was an
olive sprig for winning the coaching race
in the Olympic games The immortal
PINDAR, he adds, was called on TO hand the
winner down to posterty in an ode, and,
as if to explain finally the modern anna
teur's passion, Every gentleman has
cast his eye over those songs of triumph
No doubt Mr.. VANDERBILT has.
Certainly road race in England would |
be no novelty. When the coaches ran
on strict business principles, racing was
almost an advertising necessity. 1t is
not surprising that such races were some
times conducted in an unsportsmaniike
spirit. "Such was the jealousy between
these two rival coaches saws Lord Al
GERNON SAINT MAUR in a reminiscence
OF the Oxford road. that the horsekeep-
ers of the Age, which happened to be
be the first and was changing horses, put
a number Of stable buckets across the
road, but Major FAME, who was driving
the Royal William and galloping at the
time, the moment he saw their little game,
caught all his horses fast by the head
and giving them a smack all round, splin-
tered the buckets into pieces and went
on his way rejoicing
Indeed, besides being healthy out
door sport and not unserviceGble TO the
public. coaching proper is an art full Of
subtle points, only to be appreciated by
the expert. There was nothing remark
able about the teams used by SRLBY in
his record trip, but SELBY himself was a
artist This scope for art
is at once the attraction and the justif-
cation for the gentleman coachman. who
was already common on the road quite
n century before the railroad cotastronho