The Brighton Road

e social side of Brighton Road coaching at the beginning

m the hand of Miss Jeal as he sat in his carriage. The important business of luncheon took place at Reigate, where sufficient time was allowed the passengers to view the Baron's Cave, where, it is said, the barons assembled the night previous to their meeting King John at Runymeade. The grand halt for dinner was made at Staplefield Common, celebrated for its famous black cherry-trees, under the branches of which, when the fruit was ripe, the coaches were allowed to draw up and the passengers to partake of its tempting produce. The hostess of the hostelry here was famed for her rabbit-puddings, which, hot, were always wai

righton was safely reached at 7 p.m. It must be understood that it was the custom for the passengers to wa

PET

of advertisements that followed upon the starting of the Royal Brighton Four Horse Company in 1802. As a competitor with o

ic in general for the very liberal support they have experienced since the starting of their Coaches, and assure t

onday last, by which a gentleman's leg was broken, &c., no such thing having ever happened to ei

ED at other Coach offices, they are requested to book themselves

is firm were more than ￡12,000 per annum, yielding from Christmas, 1794, to Christmas, 1808, seven and a half per cent. on the capital invested, besides purchasing the interest of

y accelerating the speed, and to this end they acquired some forty-five horses then sold out of the Inniskilling Dragoons, at that time stationed at Brighton. On May Day, 1810, the Brighton Mail was re-established. These "Royal Night Mail Coaches" as they were grandiloquently announced, were started by arrangement with the Postmaster-General. The speed, although much improved, was not yet so very great, eight hours being oc

ight of the loaded vehicle. By one of those strange chances when truth appears stranger than fiction, there chanced to be a farmer's waggon passing the coach at the instant of

CH RO

the seat for the conveyance of remittances to and from London. On this day the Bank's London correspondents placed these notes in the box for transmission to London, but on arrival the box was found to have been broken open and the notes all stolen. It would seem that a carefully planned conspiracy had been entered into by several persons, who must have had a thorough knowledge of the means by which the Union Bank sent and received money to and from the metropolis. On this morning six persons were booke

d for information that would lead to recovery of the notes. This was subsequently altered to an offer of 100 guineas for information of the offender, in addition to ￡300 upon recovery of the tota

mance of its model. But competition had now grown very severe, and fares in consequence were reduced to-inside, ten shillings; outside, five shillings. Indeed, in 1816, a number of Jews started a coach to run from London to Brighton in

ogression. There was, in fact, no need for the Brighton Mail to make speed, for the road from the General Post Office is only fift