The Brighton Road Part 3

In 1826 seventeen coaches ran to Brighton from London every morning, afternoon, or evening. They had all of them the most high-sounding of names, calculated to impress the mind either with a sense of swiftness, or to awe the understanding with visions of aristocratic and court-like grandeur. As for the times they individually made, and for the inns from which they started, you who are insatiable of dry bones of fact may go to the Library of the British Museum and find your Cary (without an "e") and do your gnawing of them. That they started at all manner of hours, even the most uncanny, you must rest a.s.sured; and that they took off from the (to ourselves) most impossible and romantic-sounding of inns, may be granted, when such examples as the strangely incongruous "George and Blue Boar," the Herrick-like "Blossoms" Inn, and the idyllic-seeming "Flower-pot" are mentioned.

[Sidenote: NAMES OF THE COACHES]

They were, those seventeen coaches, the "Royal Mail," the "Coronet,"

"Magnet," "Comet," "Royal Suss.e.x," "Sovereign," "Alert," "Dart," "Union,"

"Regent," "Times," "Duke of York," "Royal George," "True Blue," "Patriot,"

"Post," and the "Summer Coach," so called, and they nearly all started from the City and Holborn, calling at West End booking-offices on their several ways. Most of the old inns from which they set out are pulled down, and the memory of them has faded.

The "Golden Cross" at Charing Cross, from whose doors started the "Comet"

and the "Regent" in this year of grace 1826, and at which the "Times"

called on its way from Holborn, has been wholly remodelled; the "White Horse," Fetter Lane, whence the "Duke of York" bowled away, has been demolished; the "Old Bell and Crown" Inn, Holborn, where the "Alert," the "Union," and the "Times" drew up daily in the old-fas.h.i.+oned galleried courtyard, is swept away. Were Viator to return to-morrow, he would surely want to return to Hades, or Paradise, wherever he may be, at once.

Around him would be, to his senses, an astonis.h.i.+ng whirl and noise of traffic, despite the wood-paving that has superseded macadam, which itself displaced the granite setts he knew. Many strange and horrid portents he would note, and Holborn would be to him as an unknown street in a strange town.

Than 1826 the informative Cary goes no further, and his "Itinerary,"

excellent though it be, and invaluable to those who would know aught of the coaches that plied in the years when it was published, gives no particulars of the many "b.u.t.terfly" coaches and amateur drags that cut in upon the regular coaches during the rush and scour of the season.

In 1821 it was computed that over forty coaches ran to and from London and Brighton daily; in September, 1822, there were thirty-nine. In 1828 it was calculated that the sixteen permanent coaches then running, summer and winter, received between them a sum of 60,000 per annum, and the total sum expended in fares upon coaching on this road was taken as amounting to 100,000 per annum. That leaves the very respectable amount of 40,000 for the season's takings of the "b.u.t.terflies."

An accident happened to the "Alert" on October 9th, 1829, when the coach was taking up pa.s.sengers at Brighton. The horses ran away, and dashed the coach and themselves into an area sixteen feet deep. The coach was battered almost to pieces, and one lady was seriously injured. The horses escaped unhurt. In 1832, August 25th, the Brighton Mail was upset near Reigate, the coachman being killed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE "AGE," 1829, STARTING FROM CASTLE SQUARE, BRIGHTON.

_From an engraving after C. Cooper Henderson._]

[Sidenote: STEAM CARRIAGES]

This was the era of those early motor-cars, the steam-carriages, which, in spite of their clumsy construction and appalling ugliness, arrived very nearly to a commercial success. Many inventors were engaged from 1823 to 1838 upon this subject. Walter Hanc.o.c.k, in particular, began in 1824, and in 1828 proposed a service of his "land-steamers" between London and Brighton, but did not actually appear upon this road with his "Infant"

until November, 1832. The contrivance performed the double journey with some difficulty and in slower time than the coaches: but Hanc.o.c.k on that eventful day confidently declared that he was perfecting a newer machine by which he expected to run down in three and a half hours. He never achieved so much, but in October, 1833, his "Autopsy," which had been successfully running as an omnibus between Paddington and Stratford, went from the works at Stratford to Brighton in eight and a half hours, of which three hours were taken up by a halt on the road.

No artist has preserved a view of this event for us, but a print may still be met with depicting the start of Sir Charles Dance's steam-carriage from Wellington Street, Strand, for Brighton on some eventful morning of that same year. A prison-van is, by comparison with this fearsome object, a thing of beauty; but in the picture you will observe enthusiasm on foot and on horseback, and even four-legged, in the person of the inevitable dog. In the distance the discerning may observe the old toll-house on Waterloo Bridge, and the gaunt shape of the Shot Tower.

By 1839 the coaching business had in Brighton become concentrated in Castle Square, six of the seven princ.i.p.al offices being situated there.

Five London coaches ran from the Blue Office (Strevens & Co.), five from the Red Office (Mr. Goodman's), four from the "Spread Eagle" (Chaplin & Crunden's), three from the Age (T. W. Capps & Co.), two from Hine's, East Street; two from Snow's (Capps & Chaplin), and two from the "Globe" (Mr.

Vaughan's).

To state the number of visitors to Brighton on a certain day will give an idea of how well this road was used during the decade that preceded the coming of steam. On Friday, October 25th, 1833, upwards of 480 persons travelled to Brighton by stage-coach. A comparison of this number with the hordes of visitors cast forth from the Brighton Railway Station to-day would render insignificant indeed that little crowd of 1833; but in those times, when the itch of excursionising was not so acute as now, that day's return was remarkable; it was a day that fully justified the note made of it. Then, too, those few hundreds benefited the town more certainly than perhaps their number multiplied by ten does now. For the Brighton visitor of a hundred years ago, once set down in Castle Square, had to remain the night at least in Brighton; for him there was no returning to London the same day. And so the Brighton folks had their wicked will of him for a while, and made something out of him; while in these times the greater proportion of a day's excursionists find themselves either at home in London already, when evening hours are striking from Westminster Ben, or else waiting with what patience they may the collecting of tickets at the bleak and dismal penitentiary platforms of Grosvenor Road Station; and, after all, Brighton is little or nothing advantaged by their visit.

But though the tripper of the coaching era found it impracticable to have his morning in London, his day upon the King's Road, and his evening in town again, yet the pace at which the coaches went in the '30's was by no means despicable. Ten miles an hour now became slow and altogether behind the age.

In 1833 the Marquis of Worcester, together with a Mr. Alexander, put three coaches on the road: an up and down "Quicksilver" and a single coach, the "Wonder." The "Quicksilver," named probably in allusion to its swiftness (it was timed for four hours and three-quarters), ran to and from what was then a favourite stopping-place, the "Elephant and Castle." But on July 15th of the same year an accident, by which several persons were very seriously injured, happened to the up "Quicksilver" when starting from Brighton. Snow, who was driving, could not hold the team in, and they bolted away, and brought up violently against the railings by the New Steyne. Broken arms, fractured arms and ribs, and contusions were plenty. The "Quicksilver," chameleon-like, changed colour after this mishap, was repainted and renamed, and reappeared as the "Criterion"; for the old name carried with it too great a spice of danger for the timorous.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SIR CHARLES DANCE'S STEAM-CARRIAGE LEAVING LONDON FOR BRIGHTON, 1833. _From a print after G. E. Madeley._]

[Sidenote: COACHING RECORDS]

On February 4th, 1834, the "Criterion," driven by Charles Harbour, outstripping the old performances of the "Vivid," and beating the previous wonderfully quick journey of the "Red Rover," carried down King William's Speech on the opening of Parliament in 3 hours and 40 minutes, a coach record that has not been surpa.s.sed, nor quite equalled, on this road, not even by Selby on his great drive of July 13th, 1888, his times being out and in respectively, 3 hours 56 minutes, and 3 hours 54 minutes. Then again, on another road, on May Day, 1830, the "Independent Tally-ho,"

running from London to Birmingham, covered those 109 miles in 7 hours 39 minutes, a better record than Selby's London to Brighton and back drive by eleven minutes, with an additional mile to the course. Another coach, the "Original Tally-ho," did the same distance in 7 hours 50 minutes. The "Criterion" fared ill under its new name, and gained an unenviable notoriety on June 7th, 1834, being overturned in a collision with a dray in the Borough. Many of the pa.s.sengers were injured; Sir William Cosway, who was climbing over the roof when the collision occurred, was killed.

In 1839, the coaching era, full-blown even to decay, began to pewk and wither before the coming of steam, long heralded and now but too sure. The tale of coaches now decreased to twenty-three; fares, which had fallen in the cut-throat compet.i.tion of coach proprietors with their fellows in previous years to 10_s._ inside, 5_s._ outside for the single journey, now rose to 21_s._ and 12_s._ Every man that horsed a coach, seeing now was the shearing time for the public, ere the now building railway was opened, strove to make as much as possible ere he closed his yards, sold his stock, broke his coach up for firewood, and took himself off the road.

Sentiment hung round the expiring age of coaching, and has cast a halo on old-time ways of travelling, so that we often fail to note the disadvantages and discomforts endured in those days; but, amid regrets which were often simply maudlin, occur now and again witticisms true and tersely epigrammatic, as thus:

For the neat wayside inn and a dish of cold meat You've a gorgeous saloon, but there's nothing to eat;

and a contributor to the _Sporting Magazine_ observes, very happily, that "even in a 'case' in a coach, it's 'there you are'; whereas in a railway carriage it's 'where are you?'" in case of an accident.

On September 21st, 1841, the Brighton Railway was opened throughout, from London to Brighton, and with that event the coaching era for this road virtually died. Professional coach proprietors who wished to retain the competencies they had acc.u.mulated were well advised to shun all compet.i.tion with steam, and others had been wise enough to cut their losses; for the Road for the next sixty years was to become a discarded inst.i.tution and the Rail was entering into a long and undisputed possession of the carrying trade.

The Brighton Mail, however--or mails, for Chaplin had started a Day Mail in 1838--continued a few months longer. The Day Mail ceased in October, 1841, but the Night Mail held the road until March, 1842.

VI

Between 1841, when the railway was opened all the way from London, and 1866, during a period of twenty-five years, coaching, if not dead, at least showed but few and intermittent signs of life. The "Age," which then was owned by Mr. F. W. Capps, was the last coach to run regularly on the direct road to and from London. The "Victoria," however, was on the road, _via_ Dorking and Horsham, until November 8th, 1845.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The BRIGHTON DAY MAILS CROSSING HOOKWOOD COMMON, 1838.

_From an engraving after W. J. Shayer._]

[Sidenote: THE COACHING AMATEURS]

The "Age" had been one of the best equipped and driven of all the smart drags in that period when aristocratic amateur dragsmen frequented this road, when the Marquis of Worcester drove the "Beaufort," and when the Hon. Fred Jerningham, a son of the Earl of Stafford, a whip of consummate skill, drove the day-mail; a time when the "Age" itself was driven by that sportsman of gambling memory, Sir St. Vincent Cotton, and by that Mr.

Stevenson who was its founder, mentioned more particularly on page 37.

When Mr. Capps became proprietor, he had as coachman several distinguished men. For twelve years, for instance, Robert Brackenbury drove the "Age"

for the nominal pay of twelve s.h.i.+llings per week, enough to keep him in whips. It was thus supremely fitting that it should also have been the last to survive.

In later years, about 1852, a revived "Age," owned and driven by the Duke of Beaufort and George Clark, the "Old" Clark of coaching acquaintance, was on the road to London, _via_ Dorking and Kingston, in the summer months. It was discontinued in 1862. A picture of this coach crossing Ham Common _en route_ for Brighton was painted in 1852 and engraved. A reproduction of it is shown here.

From 1862 to 1866 the rattle of the bars and the sound of the guard's yard of tin were silent on every route to Brighton; but in the latter year of horsey memory and the coaching revival, a number of aristocratic and wealthy amateurs of the whip, among whom were representatives of the best coaching talent of the day, subscribed a capital, in shares of 10, and a little yellow coach, the "Old Times," was put on the highway. Among the promoters of the venture were Captain Haworth, the Duke of Beaufort, Lord H. Thynne, Mr. Chandos Pole, Mr. "Cherry" Angell, Colonel Armytage, Captain Lawrie, and Mr. Fitzgerald. The experiment proved unsuccessful, but in the following season, commencing in April, 1867, when the goodwill and a large portion of the stock had been purchased from the original subscribers, by the Duke of Beaufort, Mr. E. S. Chandos Pole, and Mr.

Angell, the coach was doubled, and two new coaches built by Holland & Holland.

The Duke of Beaufort was chief among the sportsmen who horsed the coaches during this season. Mr. Chandos Pole, at the close of the summer season, determined to carry on by himself, throughout the winter, a service of one coach. This he did, and, aided by Mr. Pole-Gell, doubled it the next summer.

The following year, 1869, the coach had so prosperous a season that it showed never a clean bill, _i.e._, never ran empty, all the summer, either way. The partners this year were the Earl of Londesborough, Mr. Pole-Gell, Colonel Stracey c.l.i.therow, Mr. Chandos Pole, and Mr. G. Meek.

From this season coaching became extremely popular on the Brighton Road, Mr. Chandos Pole running his coach until 1872. In the following year an American amateur, Mr. Tiffany, kept up the tradition with two coaches.

Late in the season of 1874 Captain Haworth put in an appearance.

In 1875 the "Age" was put upon the road by Mr. Stewart Freeman, and ran in the season up to and including 1880, in which year it was doubled. Captain Blyth had the "Defiance" on the road to Brighton this year by the circuitous route of Tunbridge Wells. In 1881 Mr. Freeman's coach was absent from the road, but Edwin Fownes put the "Age" on, late in the season. In the following year Mr. Freeman's coach ran, doubled again, and single in 1883. It was again absent in 1884-5-6, in which last year it ran to Windsor; but it reappeared on the Brighton Road in 1887 as the "Comet,"

and in the winter of that year was continued by Captain Beckett, who had Selby and Fownes as whips. In 1888 Mr. Freeman ran in partners.h.i.+p with Colonel Stracey-c.l.i.therow, Lord Wilts.h.i.+re, and Mr. Hugh M'Calmont, and in 1889 became partner in an undertaking to run the coach doubled. The two "Comets" therefore served the road in this season supported by two additional subscribers, the Honourable H. Sandys and Mr. Randolph Wemyss.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE "AGE," 1852, CROSSING HAM COMMON. _From an engraving after C. Cooper Henderson._]

[Sidenote: JIM SELBY]

In 1888 the "Old Times," forsaking the Oatlands Park drive, had appeared on the Brighton Road as a rival to the "Comet," and continued throughout the winter months, until Selby met his death in that winter.

The "Comet" ran single in the winter season of 1889-90, and in April was again doubled for the summer, running single in 1891-2-3, when Mr. Freeman relinquished it.