rding to Shergold, Reigate in the old coaching days was the scene of
the most romantic episodes imaginable. He is full of comparisons between
the easy charm of conversation among riders by coach and the ungracious
silences of travelling by rail, and this is what you read about Reigate
and the fair who travelled by coach:--

"There was an advantage and an interest in travelling by coach which
travelling by rail can never communicate. In the former you saw men and
their faces, and acquired some information; in the latter you learn
nothing except the number of persons killed or injured by the last
accident. A young man who entered the coach at eight o'clock in the
morning at Brighton took his seat perhaps opposite a young lady whom he
thought pretty and interesting. When he arrived at Cuckfield he began to
be in love; at Crawley he was desperately smitten; at Reigate his
passion became irretrievable, and when he gave her an arm to ascend the
steep ridges of Reigate Hill--a just emblem, by the way, of human
life--he declared his passion, and they were married soon after. Nothing
of this sort ever occurs on railroads. Sentiment never blooms on the
iron soil of these sulky conveyances. A woman was a creature to be
looked at, admired, courted, and beloved in a stage-coach; but on a
railway a woman is nothing but a package, a bundle of goods committed to
the care of the railway company's servants, who take care of the poor
thing as they would take care of any other bale of goods. It is said
that matches are made in heaven; it may likewise be said that matches
more often begin in the old stage-coaches, and that railroads are the
antipodes of love."

The road from Reigate to Crawley, one of the straightest and levellest
in the south country, was once the scene of a remarkable horse-race. The
beginning of it was a discussion at a shooting party in the autumn of
1890 between Lord Lonsdale and Lord Shrewsbury on the pace of trotting
and galloping horses. Lord Lonsdale backed himself to drive galloping
horses for twenty miles, single, pair, four-in-hand and riding
postillion, inside an hour. Lord Shrewsbury wagered against him, but
there were difficulties about weather and the date--March 11, 1891--and
eventually Lord Shrewsbury withdrew from the match and paid L100
forfeit. Lord Lonsdale then set himself the task alone, and his
headquarters were at Reigate; he had fifteen horses in training, fifteen
men and thirteen carriages, and