Related article: amateur coachman — was then
running the Venture between
Newcastle and Tynemouth, and
he invited the old coachman to
make the journey, and greatly did
he enjoy his day. The turn-out
of coach, horses and harness
pleased him greatly, and there is
no doubt that many of our modern
coaches would compare favour-
ably with almost all those of older
date. Some of the very swell
concerns like the Brighton Age,
the Shrewsbury Hirondelle, or
the Birmingham Tally-Ho, were
exceedingly well turned out, but
the majority of the cross-country
coaches left a good deal to be
desired, while the less said about
most of the harness used with the
night coaches the better ; it had
seen its best days by daylight,
and was nourished exclusively on
liberal applications of neats'-foot
oil. In connection, however, with
Mr. Colpitts's later coaching ex-
periences it should not be omitted
that a very interesting meeting
once took place in London be-
tween Tim Carter, old Cracknell,
who at one time drove a Norwich
coach, and was, after the revival,
on the Brighton road, and Mr. Buy Pantoprazole Online
Colpitts. If memory serves
rightly, it was Mr. J. B. Angell
who brought about the meeting.
Mr. Angell had been on the
Prince of Wales coach, then run
by Mr. John Eden from the Scotch
Stores in Oxford Street, to High
Wycombe, on which Mr. Angell
was having a day, and happening
to see Tim Carter in London, he
found Cracknell, too, and the three
old coachmen had quite a long
talk.
Mr. Colpitts was never, so far
as is known, connected with any
long distance coaches, but owned
and drove several that made short
journeys. His yard was in the
Cloth Market at Newcastle, and
for some time he drove between
Newcastle and Durham, the coach
going on with another coachman
to Sunderland. Another of his
coaches ran between Newcastle
and Shotley Bridge, and he after-
wards ran between Newcastle
and Morpeth, keeping on after the
railway connected the two places :
but steam was too formidable an
opponent, and Generic Pantoprazole Mr. Colpitts, who
had successfully competed against
most owners on that road, had to
confess himself beaten.
There was no lack of opposition
in the north while Mr. Colpitts
was a coach proprietor, and all
sorts of dodges were resorted to
in order that passengers Purchase Pantoprazole Online might be
secured, and on one occasion a
lady with a bandbox and a baby
was seen to be approaching the
spot where Mr. Colpitts's North
Briton and a rival vehicle were
standing. The opposition guard
ran up and secured the bandbox,
but the far-seeing Mr. Colpitts
went and carried off the baby in
triumph because, as he afterwards
explained, the passenger was
bound to follow the child. The
lady rode with Colpitts! The
latter did so well on the Shotley
Bridge road that a confederacy
started an opposition coach, and
one of the men on their side
named Brown declared that, if
they did not run Colpitts off the
road in a few months, he would
hang himself. The opposition
did not succeed, and the man did
actually commit suicide in the
448
BAILY S MAGAZINE.
[JrxE
manner stated. It was mentioned
above that on the Morpeth road
Mr. Colpitts was beaten off by the
railway, but between Newcastle
and Durham he once beat the
rail. A heavy snowstorm came
on, and some of the passengers
elected to return to Durham by
rail, whereupon Mr. Colpitts re-
marked that he would beat the
train, and so he did, for although
he was between two and three
hours late, the train was blocked
in a cutting for forty-eight hours,
an incident which brought the
coach a good deal of custom during
the winter months.
Of incidents Mr. Colpitts had a
number to relate, and in talking of
overloading, he remembered how,
on one occasion, when his coach
was crammed inside and out, an
old lady decided to ride in the
front boot rather than be left be-
hind, and in quite another quarter
of England, Devonshire to wit,
the coachman of the Exeter and
Plymouth coach once took refuge
in the boot. This was Paul Col-
lings, a little man standing not
much over five feet one inch. He
started from the Black Horse Inn,
Exeter, in fine weather, but Buy Pantoprazole before
he had gone very far a smart
shower of rain began to fall, and
as Collings had left his overcoat
behind, he quietly dropped into
the boot and drove from that
shelter. A farmer riding down a
lane at right angles to the coach
road saw, as he imagined, the
horses spinning along without a
driver, so he gave chase, Paul
Collings being the while quite un-
mindful that he was being pur-
sued. Presently the rain stopped,
the horses were pulled up, and
the little coachman emerged from
his hiding - place, to the intense
surprise of the farmer, who at
first could not imagine where
Collings had come from. A run-
away coach, however, was not
exactly unknown in olden days.
Some coachmen were in the habit
of leaving their horses unattended
while they went into an inn to
drink, and it was no uncommon
thing for the horses to start away
by themselves, and if they had
anything like a start they would
sometimes trot the whole stage by
themselves, stopping of their own
accord at the regular changing
place. A team in one of Colpitts's
Briton coaches once started off
owing to a bystander startling the
horses, and although there were
five or Buy Cheap Pantoprazole six passengers on the
coach, no mishap overtook them
on the way. Pantoprazole Online
On one occasion Mr. Colpitts
used to say that he, many of the
inhabitants of, and visitors to,
Newcastle had a lucky escape
from being blown Order Pantoprazole to atoms. In
the small hours of one Saturday
morning one of the stage waggons
stopped at the Durham House,
his place in Newcastle, and left io
casks Order Pantoprazole Online a great quantity of wba:
turned out to be nicro-glycerine.
The casks were put into a hay Purchase Pantoprazole
store, the driver of the waggon
saying that they had come from
Yorkshire and they belonged to
someone who was going on by
the mail. No Cheap Pantoprazole one, however,
came forward to claim them, and
Mr. Colpitts and his men, igno-
rant of the contents of the barrels,
unconcernedly worked at the
forage in the building. On one
day, however, the ostler struck a
small piece of something on the
floor, when there was instantly a
loud report; a small quantity
more was found, and then the
discovery was made that the stuff
came from one of the casks.
Colpitts left word that if they
were not at once called for he
would have them thrown into the
river Tyne. The existence of