PROVINCIAL COACHING.

HAVING in the two last numbers of 'Baily' attempted to give our readers some slight idea of coaching as it is to be seen from London, in order to render our history of the sport complete, we now propose to say something concerning provincial coaching, for it must not be supposed that Londoners are allowed to have all the fun to themselves. A few years ago a coach in the provinces was a rarity, except in those wild and secluded districts as yet unpenetrated by railways, where miserable ramshackle old vehicles were drawn by still more miserable horses. Now things are altered, the love of the sport first nursed in London has spread far and wide, until the number of coaches running in the provinces exceeds those starting from London. This is a healthy sign, and we are pleased to see it. It is a plain proof that the sport has taken root, and that men who have enjoyed the pastime on the London ground are determined to, as it were, take it home with them and naturalise it at their country-seats. The list of coaches which are or have been running during the past summer will show how widely spread the sport has become, and that coaches are now to be found north, south, east, and west. England, we believe, has supported no less than ten; but what shall we say of Wales, which has kept going nearly a third of the number; while our Irish friends, as far as we can learn, have been contented with two? In England we find—

Of these we will first notice the Doncaster and Rotherham, which commenced running early in the year, and stopped about the end of July. The journey is but a short one, but the coach was a tremendous success, the number of passengers carried being almost incredible. It was very well horsed and turned out by Mr. Platt, who, we hear, was much assisted by Captain the Hon. Fred Howard in many ways, and the whole thing done as well as it could be. The professional was E. Page, who has since been engaged by Mr. G. Lowther for the Scarborough and Bridlington Quay coach. The Margate and Canterbury leaves Margate every morning at eleven, and arrives at Canterbury at twenty-five past one, putting up at the Fleur-de-lis, having this year changed from the Rose. The proprietor is Mr. Hargreaves. This, taking in Ramsgate, is twenty-two or twenty-three miles, and the road one of the most uninteresting, as regards scenery, that any man could select to drive over, running through open fields, in many parts bare of both hedges and trees. It is, however, capital for horses, having no steep hills for them to encounter, and, except into Ramsgate, a coachman might well get over the whole without using break or skid. The cattle used are quite first-rate; no man need wish to see better teams put to than are to be found on this road, and the coach is a new one by Shanks, fitted with his patent lock; and it has one of those knifeboard things on the roof which we have so strongly condemned. To our eye it is painted far too much like a drag to have a real coaching look, and the bright pole chains and hooks are also quite out of place on a public coach; we fancy they found the inconvenience of them during the wet weather we had during July. However there is a reason for having them, for we learn that the letters on the back of a coach can now be done over with some composition in a very short time, which completely and effectually hides them, and the affair can be used as a private drag; that job over, the stuff is rubbed off, and she comes out again in all her glory as a coach, so that she resembles very much Goldsmith's

chest contrived a double debt to pay,

A private drag by night, a public coach by day.'

This is a utilitarian age no doubt, and our jeunesse dorée are becoming economical, even in their sports and pastimes, to an extent we had not dreamed of until we heard of this sort of doublebarrelled carriage, half coach, half drag. Would not some of our old waggoners scorn these metamorphoses? By-the-way, we have animadverted on taking a coach off her regular road to run to race meetings and sales. What shall we say when we find that the Margate was stopped a day, in order that the team might parade a new fire-engine round the town? Verily, we see some strange things in the coaching world in these later days. Mr. Hargreaves has the Margate and Canterbury entirely in his own hands this season (last year, when it was first started, he had a confederate), and drives a good deal himself. One thing we can say for him—he is a

regular martinet for time at starting; whether the incoming is equally rigid, deponent sayeth not. The passengers might be better done than they are with advantage at both ends of the journey, and a regular way-bill, with seats properly booked and secured, would be an improvement on the happy-go-lucky ticket style of business that prevailed during the present season, when a passenger scarcely knew whether he had to ride on the box seat or to be stowed in the boot; and no one appeared able to tell him, or, for that matter, to care a straw what place he had, or whether he rode at all.

Another sea-side coach, if we may be allowed the term, is the Brighton and Arundel, the property of and driven by Lord Mayo, with no professional coachman, and Ike Simmons as guard, who at one time was with the Tunbridge Wells, and latterly guard of the Beckenham. This coach leaves the Royal Hotel, Brighton, daily (Sundays of course excepted), at II A.M., and proceeds via Shoreham and Worthing to Arundel, which is certainly out of its way, and savours somewhat of an extended and developed 'airing' in a Brighton fly. The inner and direct route to Arundel is pretty, but it is a poor place when you get there; the grass almost grows in the streets, and we wonder Lord Mayo had not made Chichester his destination, as it possesses such palpable advantages.

The Newnham and Gloucester has run every Wednesday and Saturday, leaving the Victoria Hotel, Newnham, at 12.30, and the Bell Hotel, Gloucester, on the return journey, at 4*30. The whole thing is done in first-rate style by Mr. W. Crawshay. Rigid time is kept, and the twelve miles of road, as beautiful a twelve as can be found in any part of England, covered in one hour and five minutes. This pace speaks well for the way in which the coach is horsed, and really the teams are as good a sort for coachers as any man need wish to look over. The coach is a new one by Holland and Holland, and called the Victoria.'

Another good coach is the 'Tally-ho,' which runs from Woodside to Chester, leaving the former place at 10:40, and arriving at Chester daily at 12:30 A.M. at the Grosvenor. The proprietor is Mr. N. Cooke, and the professional, Purcell. We have not been able to glean any particulars as to the Windsor and Reading.

The Enfield and Luton coach has been running every Tuesday and Saturday since the middle of June, from Enfield to Luton and back, and which we hear is to continue running through September. It is driven and horsed by Colonel Somerset, one of the Committee of Management of the Hertfordshire Foxhounds. The horses, as a lot, are some of the very best we ever saw put to a public conveyance, and, indeed, are too good for the work. They are great upstanding animals, over sixteen hands high, with lots of bone and plenty of breeding. They are all chestnuts, with the exception of one blue roan wheeler, a fine powerful nag, but lacking the quality of the others.

'L'Hirondelle' starts from the George at Enfield at II A.M., over the not very good roads of Enfield Chase, a nine-mile stage to

South Mimms. The next stage is at least two miles shorter, to the Peahen at St. Albans, but then Ridge Hill has to be surmounted in the course of it. The last stage is over nine miles of capital road, crossing Harpenden Common, and under the foxhound kennels at Kenesburn Green, to the George at Luton, which destination it reaches at 130 to the minute. The coach starts upon its return journey at 3.30, and gets back to Enfield at 6 precisely, taking five hours to do the fifty miles. It has been loading very well, and the public seem to appreciate a drive upon a coach, so well appointed, through a most picturesque portion of the counties of Middlesex, Herts, and Beds.

The Manchester and Altringham coach is turned out in a very spirited manner by Mr. Belcher, Mr. W. Newburn, and Mr. E. Bellhouse.

We have heard the road Mr. Pryce Hamilton has chosen, from Malvern to Ross, highly spoken of, as well as the whole turn-out; and Mr. Lowther's coach, from Scarborough to Bridlington Quay, ought to be well patronised, if locality goes for anything. He has Page as guard, who was with the Doncaster and Rotherham.

There is no coach better done throughout the length and breadth of the land than the Llandrindod and Kington, the property of Captain Cecil Otway, who horses it in first-rate style; and the whole turn-out is worth a journey into Wales to see. The coach, a Holland and Holland, was on the St. Albans road last year, and is rather a heavy one, painted yellow and black, after the Arrow,' the last coach which ran over this ground; but they want something strong, and she has plenty of room, a great consideration, as they load heavily, and carry a great deal of luggage. This is by no means the playing at coaching that we are accustomed to see in some places, but really means work, as the coach is the only public conveyance between those places, and does all the carrying both for passengers and parcels that there is to be done; so that at times both the temper of the coachman and the power of the horses are rather tried to keep time. As an instance of this, we may state that at midsummer last an old lady in one of the villages through which the coach passes was moving house, and, having got all her goods and chattels into the road-beds, bedsteads, chairs, tables, and all the lot-expected to take them by the coach. However, this was a little more than they could stand; and the good dame had to seek some other mode of conveyance. We know no better team now going than the bays and browns that were working on the Llandrindod stage when we were in Wales, and can safely say that nothing smarter or handsomer went out of London. There is also a grey called Syntax, that carried Lord Shannon's huntsman, which is fit to go anywhere, and Billy, another grey, who has gone well in the Meynell country, and several other real good horses on the road. In fact, bad ones would be no use here, for the hills they have to encounter are something tremendous, especially over the middle stage, in which they traverse Radnor Forest, the road cross

ing the hill at a height of about two thousand feet above the sea level. It is really a treat to any one who knows and appreciates what good coachmanship is to see Cracknell, who was at one time guard with the Tunbridge Wells, drive over this ground. We think coaching men generally will agree with us that there is no better workman in England, though he may not have quite the elegance and finish of his father of Tantivy' fame, and here a good one is needed if anywhere. The road is perhaps the most beautiful that could have been selected, as it comprises every kind of scenery, from the wildest hill to the most highly cultivated valley, while wood and water abound throughout nearly the whole journey. Altogether, it is one of the most agreeable of coach rides, and we advise none of the readers of Baily going into that neighbourhood to miss it. Should they be inclined to take up their quarters at Llandrindod Wells, they will find a really good old-fashioned hotel at the Pump-house, where their comforts will be well looked after, and they are sure of pleasant society. Next year, we hear, the coach will run from New Radnor to Aberystwith on the coast, a distance of fifty-two and a half miles, and it is by no means unlikely that we may see a double coach on the ground. The rest of the Welsh coaches are, we believe, very well done; the one from Dolgelly to Barmouth, which carries the Royal Mail, being especially good, and well turned out by Mr. Edwardes, and they all run over lines of road which will well repay a journey in them. Of the coaches in Ireland we can say little, save that it is cheering to know that a start has been made in the good cause in the sister island. There is one, as our table above shows, from Dublin to Bray, the property of Mr. Turbett, and called 'L'Hirondelle,' and another from Malahide Hotel, started by Mr. Johnstone, and the property of the Malahide F. J. H. Club, driven by Mr. Launcelot Purcell. And so recording with pleasure the rapid growth that coaching has made since we took up our pen to chronicle its doings. two years ago, we must wish it God speed, and drop our records until another spring once more starts us on the road, when we hope to meet all the old coaching faces again, as well as some new ones.

Since the above article was in type we have received the following communication from an old lover of the road; so good are the suggestions in themselves, and so likely to suggest an idea to those, and we believe and hope they are many, who only want an opening holding out a fair prospect of success to commence coaching, that we shall offer no excuse for laying them before our readers :

'I venture to suggest that coaching should be carried further down into the country than it is at present. The longest distance now run is to Brighton. I should like to see coaches to Cheltenham, to Bath, to Oxford, to Portsmouth, and to Hastings. "I would have these coaches connected with those now running out ' of London, but (as a rule) under different management. I should like to see at Tunbridge Wells a coach ready at three o'clock, after lunch, to go on to Hastings-that, and the London leaving at the same time. At Guildford also a coach to start each morning