The Brighton Road

ry pythoness, Mother Shipton; really the ex post facto forgery of Charles Hindley, the second-hand

ns upon weight and speed killed the steam-carriages, and for more than fifty years the highways knew no other mechanical locomotion than that of the familiar traction-engines, restricted to three miles an hour and preceded by a man with a red flag. It is true that a few hardy inventors continued to waste thei

e force already existing unsuspected was about this period being experimented with on the Continent by one Gottlie

orks in Germany, where the adaptive Germans were exploiting t

OR-

cles. The French were thus the first to perceive the great possibilities of it, and by 1894 the motor-cars already in use in France

D TIMES

ing by Alfre

, 1895, he held the first show of cars-four or five at most-in this country. Then began an agitation raised by a few enthusiasts for the removal of the existing restrictions upon road traffic. A deputation waited

rd, as to almost wear the aspect of an organised secrecy, and the coming of what is now known as Motor-car Day w

tations of the Great Horseless Carriage Company and of many others long since bankrupt and forgotten, together with the phenomenal over-valuation of

R-CAR

n that it was an occasion to be written up and enlarged upon, a very great public interest was aroused in the Motor-car Club's proposed

rs who were interested in advertising their schemes. The run to Brighton was itself intended as a huge advertisement, but the unprepared condit

or the start, there was a maddening chaos of hundreds of thousands of sightseers such as no Lord Mayor's Show or Royal Procession had ever attracted. Everybody in the crowd wanted a front place, and those who got one, being both unable a

y down from Charing Cross, up from Westminster, or along from the Embankment; co

d the explorer away and eventually washed him ashore on the neck of a policeman. Rumour got around that an organised massacre of cab-horses was contemplated, and myriads of mounted police appeared and ha

OMET,"

ing by Alfre

he mud was churned into slush, and eve

river of a growler, his sides shaking with

of Mr. Pickwick, and determining to ask so

r. Which 'ud you sooner be in:

ith

much for his charnce. 'Cos why? 'Cos mortar-caws ain't got no interleck. They cawn't tell the dif'rence 'tween nothink an' a brick wall. Now a 'os

he roar that ascended from the crowd as th

rds, chased the mounted police rig

din' still, I mean the not going forrard, 'cos t

ey hum?"

ly do make a

n, don't t

hi

ld hi

abby to a fur-coated foreig

ing with oil in it," permeating the fog, while

ers and chaff of a good-humoured crowd. Pr

inquired the elated cabby, indicating a gent

bration," expl

by inquired immediately. "I say, Chawlie, don't it make yer sea-sick?

eir way to Westminster we asked cabb

of it, old gal? Failyer? My sentiments. British public won't pay to be choked wi

te speeches were made, the Earl of Winchilsea concluding his remarks with the dramatic production of

hat no car present was more than 6 h.-p., and that all, except the Bollée three-wheeled car, were precisely what they were frequently styled, "horseless carriages," vehicles built

son, the guests were at length piloted through the crowd and inducted into their seats

FIRS

prisonment, led the way in his pilot-car, bearing a purple-and-gold banner, more or less suitably inscribed, hi

es of crowded country, when rain descended once more upon the haples

ding all rules and times, started at 11.30, and, making no stop at Reigate, drove on to Brighton, which he reached in the re

ed under the dripping elms and weeping skies, and there, at five o'clock, in the light of the misty lamps, stood and vibrated that presidential equipage and its banner with the strange

e too much for many, and that while some reposed in wayside stables, others, broken down in lonely places, remained on the road all through that awful night. The guests, who in

y at such a time of year, at so early a stage in the motor-car era, it seems remarkabl

th, of the "Vanguard" London and Brighton Motor Omnibus Service, starting in summer at 9.30 a.m., and reaching Brighton at 2 p.m.; returning from Brighton at 4 p.m., and finally arriving at its starting-point, t

builder and contractor of Brighton was being driven by him from London. The steering-gear failed, the car turned completely round, ran into an i

ton for a day at Brighton, was proceeding down Hand Cross Hill at twelve miles an hour when some essential part of the gear broke and the heavy vehicle, dashing down-hill at an ever

amateur was the American millionaire, Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, who for several seasons personally drove his own "Venture" coach between London and Brighton; at firs