Pressing on...
If it can be assumed that readers of Motor Sport like to drive to the full extent of their abilities and sometimes feel irritated by those mimsers who progress at a crawl on uncongested 60 and 70 mph roads, they should be amused by, and give recognition to Mr William Cobbett, a private enquiry-agent engaged on behalf of the plaintiffs in a court case in 1961 against the ETU, which was accused of ballot-rigging. In an attempt to show how letters posted in a certain way would arrive too late to be accepted in the ballot, Mr Cobbett drove round a substantial slice of England, checking on postal collection times in 10 towns as far apart as Peterborough, Boston, Huddersfield, Bishop Auckland, Whitby and so on, stopping to post a letter in each town. It had to be done in two days and, giving evidence, Mr Cobbett said he left Croydon in January 1960 and drove to Doncaster, via Peterborough and five more towns, in a day.
While he was describing his drive through Cumberland he was interrupted by the Judge, who observed that it was a remarkably good run, 52 miles, for instance, having been completed in 70 minutes, “and some of us know the country between Kendal and Blackburn” commented Mr Justice Winn. “I agree I had to move, in parts, my Lord”, replied Mr Cobbett. The Judge, saying that the witness must have covered a good deal of ground at high speed (“I did, my Lord”, admitted Mr Cobbett), remarked that he was not sure the whole enquiry was not contrary to public policy. In other words, the enquiry-agent had pressed on a bit too quickly…
Even admitting that cars were reasonably quick by 1960, one should spare a thought for Mr Cobbett and his rather fascinating run, which presumably involved catching the last post in towns quite far apart, before most of our Motorways had been completed. Although an average speed of 45 or so mph is not much, these days, it was less easy then; I would love to know what car was used, for this somewhat unusual commission. – W .B.