Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 05.djvu/85

* COACHING. 67 and discipline ovor the sta{;e-coach service, be- cause of its connection with the post-oUice sys- tem, and exacted a military punctuality and regularity in its running and general manage- ment. The landed and country gentry, generally, maintained a zealous watchfulness over the con- dition of the roadsj and consequently nuich compi'tition was indulged in hy the jicople of the ciiuutryside. to attract coaches to some par- ticular route, and among the coaches themselves, to establish the best records. The drivers were frequently gentlemen, and often members of the aristocracy. The 'Brighton Age,' in its palmy days, numbered among its professional drivers Charles Jones, Sir Saint Vincent Cotton, Dick Brackenbury, and many others; while such dis- tinguished men as the Duke of Beaufort, Lord Chesterfield, and Prince Henry Batthyanyi were among the amateur drivers of that and similar coaches. Professional drivers would frequently receive as nnich as !f)iOOO and $4000 per year for their services ; an immense salary for those days, and the best indication of the importance attached to the position. ,fter 1S40 coaching as a ])ublic necessity ceased to be; and with dimin- ishing business, decay set in rapidly. In Anierica, even in Colonial times, four-horse stage-wagons were in regxilar employment through- out the coiuilry. the most important (1700) ply- ing between Philadelphia and Xew York. Owing to the absence of regular roads, the saddle-horse was the favorite means of transport. Coaching as a recreation or amusement began in England about 1808 — a revival which spread to America as well as throughout Continental Europe. In England it had as its leading supporters men who remembered the pre-railroad coaching days, and desired to save the institution from the oblivion which threatened it. A more or less sticcessful ell'ort luid been made to keep alive the old spirit of coaching on one or two of the older routes ; but at the time of the so-called revival, the Four-in-Hand Club, established in 1856, and Sir Henry Peyton, were the only in- terested ones. The results were not vers' per- manent so far as England was concerned : for in 1880 there were only four coaches running — ■ a state of things, however, which has since con- siderably improved. In 1877 the "Old Times' was again put on the road between London and Saint Albans; the Four-in-Hand and the Coaching Clvxbs afterwards became permanent organizations, and their 'meets' have come to be regarded as among the social events of the London season. The first English coaching club was the B. D. C. or Bensingion Driving Club, limited originally to si.xteen members, and first organized in 1807. In 1823 the annual club meets were abandoned, and in 18.50 the club ceased to exist. The Four- Horse Club, frequently but inaccurately referred to as the Four-in-Hand Club, was formed in 1808, and, after a varied career, disbanded in 1830. Amateur coaching in the I'nited States may be said to have antedated the English re- vival by two or three years. Mr. August Belmont putting the first coach on the road in 1804. Mr. Leonard .Terome is credited with the dis- tinction of driving the first American-built coach, and he, together with a number of other gentle- men, founded in 1875 the New York Coaching Club. Since then coaching has been a regular feature of fashionable New York and Newport COAGULATION. life, the number and equipment of the coaches employed comparing most favorably with those of either London or Paris. Indeed, modern coach- ing in both England and France has received no little impetus from .merican lovers of the pas- time. At the present day coaching is confined almost exclusively to such great centres and cities of the world as are most frequented l)y the wcaltliy and leisure classes, as London, New Vork, Paris. Ber- lin, Vienna, etc., and is generally employed in connection with racing and other recreational meetings. The following is a list of the principal road coaches of New York, London, and Paris, past and present, together with their routes and time taken. A'eic York: Brunswick Hotel to Pelham Bridge, 15.5 miles in IVi hours; Bruns- wick Hotel to Yonkers, 18 miles in 1% hours; Holland House to .rdsley Casino, 25.8 miles in '2-2 hours. London: Northumberland Avenue to Box Hill, 25 miles in 3 hours; Northumber- land Avenue to Virginia Water, 20.5 miles in 3% hours; Northumberland -Avenue to Windsor, 30 miles in 4 hours. Paris: New York Herald Olliee to Cernay-la-Ville, 29 miles in 3 hours; New York Herald Office to Pontoisc, 20.3 miles in 2^4 hours; New York Herald Office to JIaisons Lafitte, 19.4 miles in 2 hours ; New York Herald Office to Versailles, 14.5 miles in l')4 hours. Of the 'two-day' trips, or routes which require an entire day each way. the most important in the United States is that from the Plaza Hotel, New York, to Tuxedo Park, 47.5 miles, which is covered in 7V> hours. In England, the journey from the White Horse Cellar, Piccadilly, to Brighton (54 miles) is accomplished in 6 hours: while in France the distance from the New York Herald Office. Paris, to Fontaiuebleau (60 miles) is accomplished in 7 hours. Stages: Under the best conditions a change of hoi'ses would be made every seven miles, but ordinarily it has to be done to suit the available stabling accommodations of the route. The best authori- ties agree that a fast coach, running out and in, is best served by having a horse to each mile of the road. Thus 30 horses would be necessary to run a coach out and in once a day, between points 30 miles apart. An illustration of the distance between stages under normal conditions, over a route 28 miles long, would be as follows: First stage 7, second stage 8, third stage 7, fourth stage 6 miles, each team serving one stage each way. On hilly roads longer stages are frequently made, but at a greatly reduced rate of progress. It is common experience that 'pace' rather than 'pull' is responsible for the dis.ablement of the average coach-horse. The bibliography of coaching is somewhat limited, but the following works are both interesting and comprehensive: Nimrod (C. J. Apperley), Bs.wy/.s on the Road (London. 1876) ; the Duke of Beaufort. Dririna (London. 1887) : Rogers, A Manual of Coachin'a (Philadelphia. 1900). COACH-WHIP SNAKE. See Whip-Snake. COAGULATION (Lat. coaciiilatio, from co- agularc, to oirdle, from coaguhnn. rennet, from CO-, together + agere, to drive). The amorphous solidification of a liquid, or part of a liquid, as when the casein of milk is solidified by rennet in making cheese (q.v.). or the white of an egg by boiling. The process varies in various sub- stances. Albumen, or the white of an egg, co-