"times" of all the important routes in London
and the suburbs. These "times" are, in fact,
the good will of the roads, and were considered
so valuable, that in some cases as much as from
£200 to £250 were given for the "times" of
one omnibus. Under this form, then, the
company at once commenced work, Messrs.
Macnamara, Carteret, and Willing acting as its
gérants (managers), with no other English legal
standing; and under this form, that is to say,
as a French company with English managers, it
worked until the 31st of December, 1857, when
the Limited Liability Act having come into
operation, by resolution of the French
shareholders the "Société en Commandite" was
transformed into an English company, and
bloomed out, in all the glory of fresh paint on
all its vehicles, as the London General Omnibus
Company (Limited). With this title, and under
the managerial arrangements then made, it has
continued ever since.

With the exception of some very few private
proprietors, and one organised opposition
company (the "Citizen"), the entire omnibus service
of the metropolis and its suburbs, extending
from Highgate in the north to Peckham in the
south, and from Hampstead in the north-west to
Greenwich in the south-east, embracing more
than seventy routes, is worked by as it is
called familiarly the "London General." In
this traffic are engaged upwards of six hundred
omnibuses and six thousand horses, the working
of which is divided into ten separate districts,
each with a head district establishment. Each
of these omnibuses travels on an average sixty
miles a day, and to each is attached a stud of
ten horses, under the care of a horsekeeper,
who is responsible for them, and who knows
the exact times when they will be wanted,
and whose duty it is to devote himself to them.
A horse is seldom changed from one stud to
another, or removed——except in case of illness;
each horse is numbered, and all the particulars
relating to him are entered in a book kept by the
foreman of the yard. The purchase-cost of these
horses averages twenty-six pounds apiece, and
the majority of them come from Yorkshire,
though agents of the company attend all the
principal fairs in England. They are of all
kinds; long straggling bony hacks, short thick
cobs; some looking like broken-down hunters,
some like "cast" dragoon chargers, some like
Suffolk Punches who have come to grief; but
the style most valued is, I am told, a short thick
horse, low in the leg, round in the barrel, and
with full strong quarters, whence all the
propelling power comes. They are of all colours,
blacks, bays, chesnuts, browns, greys, though
the predominant shade is that reddish bay so
ugly in a common horse, so splendid (more
especially when set off by black points) in a
velvet-skinned thorough-bred; a colour
particularly affected by the manufacturers of the
studs in those toy-stables which are always
furnished with a movable groom in top-boots, a
striped jacket, and a tasselled cap, with a grin of
singular vacuity on his wooden countenance.
The average work of each horse is from three to
four hours a day, and each horse consumes daily
an allowance of sixteen pounds of bruised oats and
ten pounds of mixture, formed of three parts
hay and one part straw. Their general health is,
considering their work, remarkably good; to
attend to it, there are eight veterinary surgeons,
who are responsible for the health of the whole
horse establishment, anbd who are paid by
contract, receiving four guineas a year for each stud
of ten horses. The shoeing is also contract-
work, twenty-five farriers being paid two pounds
per month for each stud. At Highbury, where
there is a large depot of six hundred horses,
there are exceptions to both these rules: a
veterinary surgeon and a farrier, each the
servant of the company, being attached to the
establishment. I went the round of the premises
—a vast place, covering altogether some fifteen
acres—with the veterinary surgeon, and saw
much to praise and nothing to condemn. True,
the stables are not such as you would see at
Malton, Dewsbury, or any of the great racing
establishments, being for the most part long,
low sheds, the horses being separated merely by
swinging bars, and rough litter taking the place
of dry beds and plaited straw; but the ventilation
was by no means bad, and the condition of
the animals certainly good. My companion told
me that glanders, that frightful scourge, was
almost unknown; that sprains, curbs, and
sandcracks, were the commonest disorders; and that
many of his cases resulted from the horses having
become injured in the feet by picking up nails
in the streets and yards. There are a few loose
boxes for virulent contagious disorders and
"suspicious" cases, but it appeared to me that
more were wanted, and that as "overwork" is
one of the most prevalent of omnibus-horse
disorders, it would be a great boon if the
company could possess itself of some large farm
or series of field-paddocks, where such members
of their stud as are so debilitated could be turned
out to grass to rest for a time. Some such
arrangement is, I believe, in contemplation, but
the company has only a short lease of their
Highbury premises, and is doubtful as to its
future arrangements there. While on this
subject I may state that an omnibus horse generally
lasts from three to four years, though some are
in full work for six or seven, while there are a
few old stagers who have been on the road ten
or twelve.

The coach-building department also has its
head-quarters at Highbury, and employs one
hundred and ninety men, whose average wages
are two hundred and fifty pounds a week. Here,
all the omnibuses (with the exception of some
six-and-twenty provided by two contractors) are
built and repaired, as are also the vans used in
conveying the forage to the outlying establishments
from the central depot (of which more
anon), and the chaise-carts and four-wheelers in
which the superintendents visit their different
districts. Every morning, at six A.M., three
compact little vans leave Highbury for the
various districts, each containing three men and