MILLIONAIRE'S HOBBY.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 153, 29 June 1911, Page 7

MILLIONAIRE'S HOBBY.

THIAD TRIP OP THE VIKING FOUK-IN-HAND'. ; U ". : ...V*'•'">•::'?•'.';:' COACHING DATS REVIVED.--*'-"-: 1 Mr Vanderbilt, driving his famous-team-of. grey .horses; left the "Venture" stables, in ; Oxford-street, at .10.15 onv Thursday morning, May 4, in the "Viking," ohhhl trial. trip to Brighton and back!; H,eavy. April showers 'marred the pleasure of :the down journey, and damped the spirits of, horses and passengers.' ;:•

At 10 a.m. on-the following day (wirltes a correspondent. In the "Ev.enlug Standiird"). we started on the return journey. It was an Ideal spring morning, with little wind fi and a total absence of dust upon the roads.'; On the way back one began to realise the poetry of coaching. • : ../..- ~ j

It is good in these days of breakneck' motor .traffic to , travel, .slowly through, the English Countryside, to note the banks ) Of spring flowers, yellow,, red, and,.blue, beside, the road, and the coppices all budding after: the April showers. : ' '"'•'■ •

It is good to sit behind a fine team.of horses, to listen to the. even Jrhythm of their hoofs, and to note their fine, flowing, lines and swelling muscles beneath the'gloss of their coats fts they settle down in "their collars to breast a rise upon the road::.,,

It is refreshing after the ill-natured scowls -which greet motor cars to- see the good-natured courtesy.with which all salute coaches. To catch a' glimpse of smiling female faces at windows, "-the respectful salute of stable hands, and to hear the cheers of children" on: the wind.-

1 It is good to dash into the yards of inns, stretch one's legs, and drink" a-hasty tankard of nle while the steaming./- dripping team is taken out and four fresh and spirited horses take their place: To watch the knot of sleepy rustics, reminiscent old -stable hands,, and .wondering 'children whlih gathers round the couch, and: to hear their' comments oh the.teams. . . '".\ . . THE "GOOD r QI_D 'DAYS." >-

Scarlet, the guard,'. whose father and grandfather were guards before him in times . reaching back to the coaching; days, of the Regency, recalled the more prosperous days of the road. He told how once in the 'eighties.Bill Selby drove from 1 London to Brighton and back in seven' hours fifty minutes; how relays of horses were arranged every ten miles, and how thejvhole road, was covered at the gallop. Then he told how he used to drive with. Captain Splcer, one of the last of the dandles of the' Brighton road, on.the, "Comet", coach, andhow _he guard- "was always dressed in, similar clothes to his master, quite regardless of expense. .' "'<-. .The "Viklng" , .has Its' .particular frledaa all along the route, all of whom shout cheery greetings ns it pnsses. One old lndy near Epsom never misses n dny during the coaching Benson without being wheeled la her chair to tho garden gato to watch the "Viking" pass. oa

After Hortiham wo pnssefl from the pretty garden scenery of Essex into the wild heathiand of Surrey. At the ptcturesriue village of Holrhswood ;.the.. children had gathered on the green •tvhlch. fronts the school to cheer Mr Vanderbilt,

Dorking was renched about two o'clock, n'tid a splendid team oi! I.ays made it 1 fine flbow ns they dnshed down the High Street. Mr. Vnnderbllfs mntchlcss horses made good going'until i-ochainpton, the last stnges wns reaehetl. Hin ptey horses were put in for the run to l.ondon. The greys looked superb ns ihe.v dnßherl over Barnes Bridge, in:nnd out of the traffic, .tin. the .'High Street, Kensington, through Hyde Park, to Oxford Street, which they reached nf six o'clock, only half an hour after the scheduled time. - ;._:;.: