INDEX

Ailesbury, Marquis of, 183-185 Allen, Ralph, 242-250 “Allen’s stall,” 34-38 Anne, Queen, 6, 237, 238 Apsley House, 34-38 Arlington, Earl of, 90 Avebury, 198-203 Banks, Sir Joseph, 93 Bath, 2-15, 228-270 Batheaston, 227, 242 —— Vase, 241 Bathford, 227 Bathampton, 228 Bath stone, 223-227, 268 Bathwick, 246 Beckhampton, 203-205 Berkeley, Earls of, 82-84, 87, 89 “Berkshire Lady,” the, 141-145, 158 Bladud, Prince, 231, 243 Box, 203, 223-227 —— Hill, 224, 227 —— Tunnel, 223 Brentford, 70 Calcot, 141-145 Calne, 203, 206, 209 Cherhill, 205-207 Chippenham, 17, 203, 210-215, 253 Chiswick High Road, 58, 65 Church Speen, 153, 165, 166 Coaches:— “Beaufort Hunt,” 26, 204 “Flying Machines,” 5, 69, 260 “Light Post” coach, 30 Mail coaches, 10, 11, 17-19, 27 “Regulator,” 16 “York House,” 26 Coaching era, 4-33, 204 —— fares, 5, 28 —— miseries, 9, 15-19 Coaching notabilities:— Chaplin, Edward, 21, 90 —— and Horne, 90 Cooper, Thomas, 21 Everett, Jack, 204 Colnbrook, 97-103 Colne, River, 96-98, 103 Corsham Regis, 218, 221-223, 224 Cranford, 82, 85, 86-89 —— Bridge, 29, 84, 97 Cross Keys, 218 Cycling records, 215-218 Darell, William, 173-182 Froxfield, 182 Fyfield, 192 Great Western Railway, 27, 74, 108-110, 124, 134, 149, 221, 227 Gunnersbury, 63, 68 Hammersmith, 58, 63 Hare Hatch, 134 Harlington, 89-91 —— Corner, 89 Harmondsworth, 94-96 Henry VIII., 13-138 Highwaymen, 40-45, 56, 67-69, 71, 74-84, 87, 91-94, 111-116, 118, 129 Hock-tide, 167-173 Hounslow, 19, 71-74, 92 —— Heath, 69, 71, 74-84, 86, 92, 111 Hungerford, 146, 166-173 Hyde Park Corner, 33-40, 74, 94, 166 Inns (mentioned at length):— “Bear,” Maidenhead, 25, 129 “Bell and Bottle,” Knowl Hill, 133 “Black Bull,” Holborn, 31 “Castle,” Marlborough, 17, 21, 187, 192 ——, Salt Hill, 92, 107 “Greyhound,” Maidenhead, 127 “Halfway House,” Kensington, 40, 43, 45 “Hercules’ Pillars,” Hyde Park Corner, 34 “King’s Head,” Longford, 97 “Magpies,” 90 “Old Bell,” Holborn, 31-33 “Old Magpies,” 91 “Old Pack Horse,” Turnham Green, 66-68 “Old Windmill,” Turnham Green, 65 “Ostrich,” Colnbrook, 99-103 “Pack Horse and Talbot,” Turnham Green, 59, 66 “Peggy Bedford,” Longford, 97 “Pelican,” Speenhamland, 15, 150, 253 “Red Cow,” Brook Green, 56-58 “Robin Hood,” Turnham Green, 63-65 “Waggon and Horses,” Beckhampton, 203-205 “White Bear,” Piccadilly, 26 “White Bear,” Fickles Hole, 26 “White Hart,” Bath, 260 “White Horse,” Fetter Lane, 16, 30 “White Lion,” Bath, 22, 26, 260 “York House,” Bath, 26 Jack of Newbury, 150-154, 157-161 Kennet, River, 146, 152, 166, 186, 193 Kensington, 34, 40, 44, 46-55 Kew Bridge, 68 Kiln Green, 133 Knightsbridge, 34, 40, 44 Knowl Hill, 133 Langley Broom, 104 —— Marish, 104 Littlecote, 173-182 Longford, 94, 96 Maidenhead, 33, 122, 124-130 —— Thicket, 111, 129-133 Mail coaches established, 10 Manton, 194 Marlborough, 22, 26, 182, 186-193, 204 —— College, 188, 192 —— Downs, 17, 197-201, 205, 253 Maud Heath’s Causeway, 213-215 Nash, Beau, 238-240, 243, 250 Newbury, 18, 138, 146, 150-166, 253 ——, battles of, 161-165 Old-time travellers:— Campbell, Rev. Thomas, 252-255 Moritz, Pastor, 116-123 Palmer, George, 135 ——, John, 10, 242, 243 Pickwick, 218-221 Postage of letters, 10-15, 167 Prior Park, 243, 246 Quemerford, 206 Reading, 18, 29, 130, 134-138 Salt Hill, 92, 106-111, 122 Savernake Forest, 182-185, 194 Sham Castle, 249 Silbury Hill, 198-203 Sipson Green, 91 Speen, 153, 165, 166 Speenhamland, 150, 253 Stackhouse, Rev. Thomas, 153 Taplow, 108, 124 Tetsworth water, 105 Thatcham, 21, 146, 149, 153 Theale, 145, 162 Turnham Green, 58-68 Turnpike gates, 11, 34, 45, 73, 166 Twyford, 130, 134 Wainewright, Thomas Griffiths, 59 Walcot, 228 West Kennet, 197 —— Overton, 197 “Wild Darell,” 173-182 Woolhampton, 146-149 Wyatt’s Rebellion, 38 “Young’s Corner,” 58

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Footnotes:

[1] Stranger still, the chief informer was named Porter.

[2] Tawell had poisoned his sweetheart, who, before dying, had time to denounce him to her friends. They pursued him to the station, but when they arrived there the train had gone. The telegram sent was in these words:—

“A murder has just been committed at Salt Hill, and the suspected murderer was seen to take a first-class ticket for London by the train which left Slough at 7.42 p.m. He is in the garb of a Quaker, with a brown great-coat on, which reaches nearly to his feet. He is in the last compartment of the second-class carriage.”

At Paddington he took a City omnibus, but the conductor was a policeman in disguise, and dogged his footsteps from one coffee-house to another, which he is supposed to have entered for the purpose of setting up an alibi. At length, as he was stepping into a lodging-house in the City, the police tapped him on the shoulder, with the question, “Haven’t you just come from Slough?” Tawell confusedly denied the fact, but he was arrested, with the result already recounted.

[3] Lord Iveagh’s name is Guinness. Unfortunately for the thoroughness of the jest, there are but thirteen chapters in the Epistle to the Hebrews.

[4] It was about 1630 that the town of Marlborough obtained a new grant of arms in place of its old shield of a “Castle argent, on a field sable.” The new shield, still in use, is heraldically described as—“Per Saltire, gules and azure. In chief, a Bull passant, argent, armed or. In fess, two Capons, argent. In base, three greyhounds courant in pale, argent. On a chief, or, a pale charged with a Tower triple-towered, or, between two Roses, gules. Crest—On a wreath, a Mount, vert, culminated by a Tower triple-towered, argent. Supporters: two Greyhounds, argent.” These arms are intended to perpetuate the memory of the ancient custom in Marlborough of the aldermen and burgesses presenting the mayor for the time being with a leash of white greyhounds, a white bull, and two white capons.

[5] “There are many pleasanter places, even in this dreary world, than Marlborough Downs when it blows hard; and if you throw in beside a gloomy winter’s evening, a miry and sloppy road, and a pelting fall of heavy rain, and try the effect, by way of experiment, in your own proper person, you will experience the full force of this observation.”

The traveller’s horse stopped before “a road-side inn on the right-hand side of the way, about half a quarter of a mile from the end of the Downs.... It was a strange old place, built of a kind of shingle, inlaid, as it were, with cross-beams, with gabled-topped windows projecting completely over the pathway, and a low door with a dark porch and a couple of steep steps leading down into the house, instead of the modern fashion of half a dozen shallow ones leading up to it.”

[6] That the Romans knew the city we call Bath as Aquæ Solis—the “Waters of the Sun”—we learn from the ancient history of Britain. A highly interesting light upon this is furnished by the sculptured stone discovered some years since, and now in the local museum, which shows a decorative representation of the head of the Sun God from whose face radiate sun-rays, alternately with serpents.

[7] Once the recognized pronunciation of the word. The great Duke of Wellington was probably the last who spoke it thus.

[8] He meant Chippenham.