The Cambridge Telegraph Coach at the 'White Horse Tavern & Family Hotel', Fetter Lane, London

James Pollard (Islington 1792 - Chelsea 1867). Oil painting on canvas, The Cambridge Telegraph Coach at the 'White Horse Tavern & Family Hotel', Fetter Lane, London by James Pollard (1797-1867), signed, 1857. A large blue carriage with red painted wheels and drawn by four horses, one of them white with brown patches, stands outside the White Horse Tavern and Family Hotel. It is loaded up with a number of passengers; a group comprising two top-hatted gentleman and a boy and two men and a woman in pink who sit on top of the carriage at the back and a group of four top-hatted gentlemen who sit at the front of the coach with the driver. Two further passengers can be seen inside the coach. There are several bystanders in the street to the front and rear and a figure looks out from a large window on the ground floor of the tavern at centre right. The imposing red-brick frontage of the hotel, at least four storeys high, is the backdrop to the main action around the coach and runs the full width of the painting. The name of the hotel is set in large gold letters upon a band of white stone between the ground and first floor where the statue of a white horse stands on a small platform. The street sign of 'Fetter Lane' is attached to the side of the building at the far right and underneath is an alleyway where bill posters can be seen on the far wall. The scene is brightly lit and the shadow of the building opposite falls onto the cobbled street in the foreground of the painting. National Trust Carriage Museum (Accredited Museum)