Percy Greaves knew as well as anyone the dangers of the road and the vulnerability of the traveller, and he had good reason to be wary. His father had been killed 8 years earlier driving home in a rainstorm. George Frederick Greaves was returning from giving a music lesson, when a flash of lightning spooked his horse. His democrat pitched off the road, throwing George onto his head. He was still conscious, but the cerebral hemorrhaging had begun. He died next day.

As much as he could, Percy avoided travelling in a buggy. He much preferred going by train. In fact, train travel enthralled him. He always went second class coach and he tried to sit as far forward as possible in order to hear and feel the rhythm, the speed, the power of the locomotive.

Of course this was the beginning of the age of the automobile, and Percy would soon embrace it fully.