Friday, January 14, 2011
Vanderbilt Stage Coach
It has been an evening out with the Vanderbilts - as quoted in the song "We're a Couple of Swells"; in the song the Vanderbilts have "asked us up for tea."
This evening we were entertained by the doings of a wealthy American - Mr A G Vanderbilt.
For reasons a little beyond my comprehension he left America in the late 19th century to set up a stagecoach company as a tourist attraction for wealthy Brits.Well. I guess I do understand - he just had a passion for that sort of thing. It is doubtful that he made much money at it.
He ran coaches in the summer months from London down to Brighton. People could if they chose opt to travel back by train.
We have seen pictures of his various coaches and the old coaching inns that they stooped at on the route - including our own George hotel in Crawley.
On another route the coaches stooped at The Dog and Bacon in Horsham, where we saw morris dancing on new year's day.
Towards the end of a talk we saw a picture that surprised me.
You know that we travel back and forth to Dorking very frequently - I am the passenger in the car and very able to take note of our surroundings.
Last Monday as we whizzed along the dual carriage way at Holmwood I suddenly caught a glimpse of a memorial behind a fence that I had not spotted before.
One day, I thought, I should see what the memorial stone is for.
Tonight I was told.
The inscription reads......
"In Memory of Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt a gallant gentleman and a fine sportsman who perished in the Lusitania May 7th 1915. This stone is erected on his favourite road by a few of his British coaching friends and admirers"
It is a quirk of fate that took him down with the Lusitania.
Three years earlier he had intended to return to America on the Titanic - but circumstances forced him to change his mind at the last minute.
And then it was time for the raffle to be drawn. If only I had been more generous!
We raise money for St Catherine's Hospice and this evening I decided to buy two strips of tickets instead of one - in memory of my nephew Cameron, who died in the hospice 11 years ago today.
Just one more strip and I would have won a fantastic book about postcards.
Instead I won a glass decanter and a set of glasses.
I doubt that the quality is very special - but it will be sold some time, somewhere.
Tomorrow we will be up early and out hunting at Ford.
I am looking forward to it.
