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COACHING DAYS & WAYS
BY
E. D. CUMING
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY
G. DENHOLM ARMOUR
THE BRITISH SPORT SERIES
HODDER AND STOUGHTON
COACHING
The many boons conferred by Mr. JohnPalmer upon his generation faded before theadvance of the railways; but he has deservedwell of posterity, if only for that he altered thecoach team from three horses to four. Until thatenterprising man undertook to demonstrate that thecoach could carry letters more rapidly and safelythan could the post-boy, our ancestors had beencontent with the unicorn team; but after Palmerhad astonished the world by making the journeyfrom Bath to London, in 1784, at the rate ofnearly seven miles an hour, the team of fourhorses gradually but steadily supplanted that ofthree in the stages on almost every road in thecountry.
The Stage Coach: Old Times
Painting by G. D. Armour.
It is generally assumed that fast coaching onlycame into existence after the macadamisation ofthe roads; but this is not quite the case. Underfavourable conditions the speed attained in pre-[Pg 6]Macadamdays was nearly as great as it becamelater. The Sporting Magazine of June 1807 says:‘Lately one of the stage coaches on the Northroad ran from London to Stamford, a distance of90 miles, in 9 hours 4 minutes. The passengers,four in number, breakfasted and dined on theroad, so it must have run at the rate of 12 milesan hour all the time it was travelling.’
The ‘old heavies’ discarded under Palmer'sdrastic rule worked out their lives as ordinarystage coaches, and some of these remained on theroad until well on in the nineteenth century.
Nimrod's description of the old-time coachmanis worth giving:—
‘The old-fashioned coachman to a heavy coach—andthey were all heavy down to very recenttimes—bore some analogy with the prize-fighter,for he stood highest who could hit