Driving club

In the 19th century, a driving club was a membership club for the recreational practice of carriage driving.

One of the first driving clubs was the Bensington Driving Club, founded in February 1807 at Bensington, Oxfordshire, also known as the Benson Driving Club when Bensington became Benson, and commonly referred to as "the B.D.C.". It was disbanded in 1854. The BDC initially met in the White Hart public house. Later the club was relocated to Bedfont, becoming the Bedfont Driving Club with ease (since the initials remained the same), and met in the Black Dog public house. As a consequence it was also known by the informal name the Black and White Club.

Its first president was Charles Finch. Finch's successor as president was Thomas Onslow, 2nd Earl of Onslow, a.k.a. "Tommy" Onslow. The members of the club were illustrated in Holcroft's comedy The Road to Ruin in Goldfinch. Tommy Onslow was ridiculed in two epigrams, the first of which was:

What can Tommy Onslow do?
He can drive a coach and two!
Can Tommy Onslow do no more?
He can drive a coach and four.

The second was a variation:

Say, What can Tommy Onslow do?
Can drive a curricle and two!
Can Tommy Onslow do no more?
Yes, — drive a curricle and four.

In fact, these were variants of a rhyme that had followed Onslow from his days as a "whip" long before the founding of the Four-In-Hand Club, where he had driven a phaeton. In Athenæum one correspondent reported that the verse had been popular in Onslow's younger days, in Surrey, at the start of the 19th century:

What can little T. O. do?
Drive a phaeton and two.
Can little T. O,. do no more?
Yes, — drive a phaeton and four.

The (friendly) rival Four Horse Club was founded the year after the BDC, in April 1808, but didn't last as long. It was founded because the membership of the BDC was limited to 25 people. Charles Buxton, the inventor of the Buxton bit, along with some friends therefore founded the Four Horse Club. It was also informally known by various other names, as the Four-In-Hand Club (after four-in-hand), the Whip Club, and the Barouche Club. The third name was after a type of horse carriage called a barouche, which was driven by its members. The club rules dictated that a barouche should have silver mounted harnesses, rosettes at their heads, yellow bodies, "dickies", and bay horses. However, the final requirement was relaxed. Club members Sir Henry Peyton and Mr Annesley drove roan horses.

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