An Old Coachman's Chatter, with Some Practical Remarks on DrivingCorbett, Edward
History
An Old Coachman's Chatter, with Some Practical Remarks on Driving
Corbett, Edward
Coaching (Transportation); Driving of horse-drawn vehicles
After singling out the London and Birmingham day mail, which was timed
at twelve miles an hour, it is impossible to say, at the present date,
which was the fastest coach. That the "Quicksilver" was the fastest
mail, I have no doubt, though I believe the palm has been disputed by
the Bristol, and perhaps some others; for if a passenger asked a
coachman which was the fastest, he was very likely to be told that the
one he was travelling in was. I cannot, however, believe that any of
these claims could have been supported by facts. "_Cui bono?_" We
can see at a glance why the Devonport should be pushed along as fast
as possible, because the journey was a long one; but the distance to
Bristol was only one hundred and twenty miles, and whether the mail
arrived there at eight or nine o'clock in the morning would have been
thought little of in those days, but in a journey of two hundred and
twenty-seven miles half a mile an hour makes an appreciable
difference. It would seem reasonable, therefore, that the longer mails
should have been accelerated as much as possible, and so I believe it
really was the case, and that the Holyhead was, after the
"Quicksilver," the fastest out of London. At any rate, I know that,
when travelling by it, we always passed all the other mails going the
same road, and that included a considerable number, as the north road
and the Holyhead were synonymous as far as Barnet, and, moreover, the
Post-Office was likely to have screwed up these two mails the
tightest, as one carried the Irish bags and the other had the
correspondence of an important dockyard and naval station.
To single out the fastest coach would be still more impossible. The
"Wonder" had a world-wide reputation, which was well deserved, both
for the pace and regularity with which she travelled and the admirable
manner in which she was appointed in every way; but what gave that
coach its preponderating name was the fact of its being the first
which undertook to be a day coach over a distance much exceeding one
hundred and twenty miles. The Manchester Telegraph must have surpassed
the "Wonder" in pace, and, certainly, when we consider the difference
of the roads and the hills by which she was opposed in her journey
through Derbyshire, had the most difficult task to accomplish; and,
again, the "Hirondelle" was timed to go the journey of one hundred and
thirty-three miles between Cheltenham and Liverpool in twelve hours
and a half, which is a higher rate of speed than the "Wonder," which
was allowed fifteen and a half hours to cover the one hundred and
fifty-four miles between London and Shrewsbury, and on a far superior
road.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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