Tally-Ho

The “Tally Ho” Road Coach, owned and operated by Col. Delancy Kane, helped inspire the 19th century trend of road coaching in America. Col. Kane, of New Rochelle, New York, was one of the first Americans to learn four-in-hand driving from a skilled English coachman overseas. Kane returned from England not only with knowledge, but a road coach made by Holland & Holland, carriage makers based in London. Modeled after the English Mail Coaches and their coachmen that set staggering records of speed throughout England, road coaching became a phenomenon in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and other American cities. During the later part of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century, the coaching clubs that followed, the parades of coaches and fine teams, created spectacles paralleled to none other in America at the time. High society found a place to see and be seen by their social peers. Throngs of onlookers flocked to coaching events where high society paraded and executed the art of driving.