We all know that the Brighton Road is nowadays measured from the south side of Westminster Bridge, but it is not generally known--nor possibly known to one person in every ten thousand of those who consider they have worn the Brighton Road threadbare--that it was measured from "Westminster Bridge" before ever there was a bridge. No bridge existed across the Thames anywhere between London Bridge and Putney until November 10th, 1750, when Westminster Bridge, after being for many years under construction, was opened, superseding the ancient ferry which from time immemorial had plied between Horseferry Stairs, Westminster, and Stangate on the Surrey side, the site of the present Lambeth Bridge. The way to Brighton (and to all southern roads) lay across London Bridge. The old stones dated 1743 and 1744, and giving the mileage from the bridge, were thus displaying that "intelligent anticipation of events" which is, perhaps, even more laudable in statesmen than in milestones--and as rarely found. To this day no man knoweth the distance between London and Brighton. Convention fixes the distance as 51-1/2 miles from the south side of Westminster Bridge to the Aquarium, by the classic route; but where is he who has chained it in proper surveyorly manner? The milestones themselves are a curious miscellany, and form an interesting study. They might profitably have been made a subject for the learned deliberations of the Pickwick Club, but the opportunity was unfortunately missed, and the world is doubtless the loser of much curious lore. Where is he who can, offhand, describe the first milestone on the Brighton Road, and tell where it stands? It ought to be no difficult matter, for miles are not--or should not be--elastic. It stands, in fact, on the kerb at the right-hand side of Kennington Road, between Nos. 230 and 232, just short of Lower Kennington Lane, and is a poor old battered relic, set anglewise and with the top broken away, bearing the legend, in what was once bold lettering: . . . . . . . MILE HORSEGUARDS WHITEHALL That is the first milestone on the Brighton Road. Sterne, were he here to-day, would shed salt tears of sentiment upon it, we may be sure. It says nothing whatever about Brighton, and is probably the one and only stone that takes the Horseguards as a datum. About forty yards beyond this initial landmark is another "first" milestone: a tall, upstanding affair, certainly a century old, with three blank sides, and a fourth inscribed: I MILE FROM WESTMINSTER BRIDGE