The Brighton Road. By Charles G. Harper. (Chapman and Hall.
18s.)—Mr. Harper has written about many roads, some of them far more famous, historically famous, we might say, than that which he now celebrates. The Bath Road and the Great North Road, to mention two only of the eleven of which he has already written, must be allowed precedence over the Brighton Road. This is but fifty-one and a half miles in length, measured from Westminster Bridge (South) to the Aquarium. There is an alternative route by Godstone, East Grinstead, and Lewes. measuring fifty-nine miles ; and another by Dorking, Horsham, and Mockbridge. fifty-seven and a half miles in length. Then it does not go back to a very remote antiquity. Brighton was practi- cally discovered by George IV. The Brighton Road as a business concern did not last much more than half-a-century. There has been a sentimental revival, as it may be called, and there was for some years a real business revival in the Parcel Mail. The Post Office had made an improvident bargain with the railway companies, giving them fifty-five per cent, of the postage for their share of the freight. As the railways refused any concession, the Post Office started horsed mails. That to Brighton ran from June, 1887, to June, 1905. (Mr. Harper gives the picture of its last run, and a very pretty picture it is, though it hardly seems in place as a frontispiece to this particular book.) It was started in a way which does credit to the historical sense of the Postmaster- General of the time. The guard had a blunderbuss and a horn, and he had been guard on the latest of the coaches. Alas ! the horsed van has given way to the petrol van. Mr. Harper supplies all kinds of interesting and picturesque details about the men, the vehicles, the passengers, the places they passed through, the adventures which they met with. We need not praise his way, which is too well known to need commendation, or the skill of his pencil, which has been helped by old prints and pictures. This is a book out of which a great deal of pleasure may be got.
Previous page
