The “Quicksilver” was thereupon repainted and renamed, and, under the alias of the “Criterion,” resumed its journeys. But ill-fortune clung to that coach, for on June 7th, 1834, as it was leaving London, it came into collision with a brewer’s dray opposite St. Saviour’s Church, Southwark. A little way on, down the Borough High Street, the coachman was obliged to suddenly pull up the horses to avoid running over a gentleman on horseback, whose horse had bolted into the middle of the road. The sudden strain on the pole, already, it seems, splintered in the affair with the dray, broke it off. It fell, and became entangled with the legs of the wheelers, who became so restive and infuriated that attempts were made to put on the skid; but before that could be done the coach overturned. Sir William Cosway, who was one of the outsides, and was at that moment attempting to climb down, was pitched off so violently that his skull was fractured, so that he died in less than two hours afterwards. A Mr. Todhunter “sustained” (as the reporters have it) a broken thigh.
1834.—The London and Halifax Mail came into collision with a bridge, five miles from Sheffield. The coachman, Thomas Roberts, was killed.
The Wolverhampton and Worcester coach, in avoiding a cart coming down a hill near Stourbridge, was upset, and a passenger killed.
October.—A wheel came off one of Wheatley’s Greenwich coaches at London Bridge, and one gentleman was killed.
1835. August.—The Liverpool “Albion” fell over on entering Whitchurch, through a worn-out linchpin. A lady inside passenger was disfigured for life.
June.—The Nottingham “Rapid” upset, three miles from Northampton, through the breaking of an axle. A girl’s leg crushed, and afterwards amputated.
November.—The Newcastle and Carlisle Mail upset, two miles from Hexham. Aiken, the coachman, killed.
December 25th.—The down Exeter Mail upset on Christmas night, on nearing Andover, through running against a bank in the prevailing fog. Austin, the coachman, killed.
1836. June.—The up Louth Mail nearly upset by stones maliciously placed in the road by some unknown person, near Linger House bar. Rhodes, the guard, was thrown off and seriously injured.
In September, 1836, a shocking accident befel the down Manchester “Peveril of the Peak,” five miles from Bedford. The coach turned over, and a gentleman named O’Brien was killed on the spot. The coachman lay two hours under the coach, and died from his injuries.