Page:Omnibuses and Cabs.djvu/94

 when he started his famous omnibuses, and yet he was driven at last into the bankruptcy court, and finished his omnibus career under a financial cloud. Tilling, however, began work without capital, and with but one solitary horse for his stock-in-trade, yet by hard work he achieved success and built up the large business so well known to all Londoners. By 1851, four years after his modest start, he had prospered to an extent which enabled him to put on the road his first omnibus. It was called the "Times," and ran from Peckham to Oxford Circus. At the present day there are some twenty-four "Times" omnibuses on that road. Tilling's "Times" are excellently horsed, and share with the John Bull Association's omnibuses the honour of being the fastest travelling omnibuses in London. Tilling's four-horsed "Times" doing its first morning journey to the West End is the most picturesque omnibus sight in England.

When the first "Times" had proved a success, Mr. Tilling started omnibuses on other roads, and before many years had elapsed there was no name better known to South Londoners than his. At that period it was the morning custom of South