Mishaps were so frequent and productive of so many fatalities, to say nothing of broken limbs, that at last general outcry arose for more stringent repressive measures: and in 1820 a law (1 Geo. IV., c. 4) was passed, making coachmen who might be guilty of 'wanton or furious driving or racing' liable to imprisonment as well as to fine, even though their proceedings were not brought to a close by overturning the coach. The new law did not make an end of accidents: on the whole there were fewer as the result of racing, but the records of time bear ample witness to lack of ordinary caution. For many years Macadam and Telford had been devoting their ingenuity to the task of solving the secret of road-making; it was not until 1818 that the Macadam system was finally approved and adopted. Then the work of remaking the roads of the kingdom was taken in hand, and the new highways, when constructed, ushered in the brief 'golden age' of coaching--say 1825 to 1838, the mails having been transferred to the railways in the latter year. Nimrod's famous essay, written in 1835, shows in convincing fashion the difference between coaching in the olden days and at its best:-- 'May we be permitted, since we have mentioned the _Arabian Nights_, to make a little demand on our readers' fancy, and suppose it possible that a worthy old gentleman of this said year--1742--had fallen comfortably asleep _à la Dodswell_, and never awoke till Monday morning in Piccadilly? "What coach, your honour?" says a ruffianly-looking fellow, much like what he might have been had he lived a hundred years back. "I wish to go home to Exeter," replies the old gentleman, mildly. "Just in time, your honour, here she comes--them there grey horses; where's your luggage?" "Don't be in a hurry," observed the stranger; "that's a gentleman's carriage." "It ain't! I tell you," says the cad; "it's the Comet, and you must be as quick as lightning." _Nolens volens_, the remonstrating old gentleman is shoved into the Comet, by a cad at each elbow, having been three times assured his luggage is in the hind boot, and twice three times denied having ocular demonstration of the fact.