Stage-coach and mail in days of yore : a picturesque history of the coaching age . h its attendantcompetition, opened about 1820, and from thattime the Defiances, the Celerities, theRapids, Expresses, Reindeers, Darts,Stags, and Antelopes increased; whilefiercely militant titles, such as those of theRetaliator, the Spitfire, Vixen, Pear-less, Dreadnought, and Invincible reflectedthe extraordinary bitterness and animosity withwhich that competition was conducted. Thereverse of this unamiable feature is seen in thenames—breathing a spirit of goodwill, or at leastof meekness, reliability, and ino
Stage-coach and mail in days of yore : a picturesque history of the coaching age . h its attendantcompetition, opened about 1820, and from thattime the Defiances, the Celerities, theRapids, Expresses, Reindeers, Darts,Stags, and Antelopes increased; whilefiercely militant titles, such as those of theRetaliator, the Spitfire, Vixen, Pear-less, Dreadnought, and Invincible reflectedthe extraordinary bitterness and animosity withwhich that competition was conducted. Thereverse of this unamiable feature is seen in thenames—breathing a spirit of goodwill, or at leastof meekness, reliability, and inoffensiveness—ofthe Amity, the Live and Let Live, Hope,Endeavour, the Give and Take, Reliance,Safety, Regulator, Perseverance, GoodIntent, and Pilot coaches. It is probable thatsome of these titles were given by small joro-prietors, anxious to disclaim rivalry with morepowerful men. Others were intended to securethe patronage of the old ladies and the timorous,and all those to whom coach travelling, with itsmany accidents and hairbreadth escapes, was adisagreeable HOJV THE COACHES WERE NAMED 309 To reassure the old ladies of both sexes suchcoaches as the Patent Safeties were of those so called Avere neither safe norpatent, hut an excejition must be made in the caseof the coach invented and patented in December1805 by the Eeverend William Milton, Vicar ofHeckfield, near Reading. This gentleman, Avhoyearned for a larger sphere of action than thatprovided by his rural parish, and appareiitly didnot find his duties sufficient to occupy his time,studied the subject, and produced a book in whosepages he sets forth the design of his coach andits superiority over anything that had hithertoappeared on the road. His principle not onlyconsisted in lowering the body of the vehicle uponits axles, so reducing the centre of gravity, but inaddition provided a luggage box in the rear of thecoach, hung so low that it was only fourteeninches from the ground. His ide
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjecthorses, bookyear1903
