[Illustration: THE “READING TELEGRAPH,” PASSING WINDSOR CASTLE. _After J. Pollard._ ] “Balloon” coaches were first heard of in 1785, when a plentiful scattering of that name over the country proved how deep an impression had been made upon the public mind by the balloon ascents of Lunardi in the previous year. A stone monument marks the spot beside the Cambridge Road, near Ware, on which that aerial traveller descended after his first flight in this country; and the coaches long carried an echo of the wonderment then excited. Coach-proprietors had, indeed, by this time begun to see the commercial advantage of impressing the public with a sounding name. Already, by long use and wont, cars had become blunted by the name of the Flying Machines, which had fallen unmeaningly upon several generations accustomed to liberally discount the absurd pretension. No one at this time, it is safe to say, ever received a mental impression of flying when a flying coach was named. The name had become a mere convention. The Balloon was therefore a godsend to coach-proprietors who, in naming their conveyances after it, succeeded for a while in reviving an outworn figure of speed, and thus again suggested the idea of their coaches gracefully navigating the empyrean, rather than painfully staggering along the rutty roads. The “Defiance” coaches bring us closer to the great Augustan era of smart coaches and great emulation along the road. The earliest coach of this name was put on the Leeds and Hull road in 1784, and became the parent of many more. Extraordinary ingenuity was used in the selection of “telling” names, supposed to instantly discover the character of a coach to travellers. The various “Highflyers,” for example, spoke to sporting men of a speed that might be neck or nothing. The typical sportsman would book by the “Highflyer,” the “Vixen,” “Spitfire,” the “Flying Childers,” “Lightning,” or “Rapid,” while the typical parson would go by the “Regulator,” the “Reliance,” or, best of all, if opportunity offered, by the “Good Intent.” It is curious to note in how arbitrary a geographical manner these names were distributed. It is no use seeking a “Highflyer” in the history of the Brighton Road. “Highflyers” were Yorkshire products, and almost exclusively confined to the Great North Road and its affluents. There, indeed, they were numerous. The old original of the name was started in 1788, and kept the road between London and Edinburgh until 1840. There were at least six others.