332 The Right Hon. Sir John H. A. MacdonaU [Feb. 16, 



travelled from London like a comet, with a tail of dust all the way 

 as long as the Mall." 



These instances, the real and the illustrative, apply to a compara- 

 tively late period, when the post-chaise had come into common use. 

 Earlier travelling by vehicle was confined to the broad, lumbering, 

 2J-miles-an-hour wagon or wain, drawn by a string of six, eight, or 

 even more horses, that it might be forced through the slough of 

 mud collected in the ruts, which, apparently, were never filled up 

 until the wagons had their axles scraping the ground. The rate of 

 speed under good conditions was 20 miles a day, wains from Lanca- 

 shire to London taking 10 days in summer and 11 days in winter. 



Notwithstanding all the difficulties, efforts were used by enterpris- 

 ing people to introduce stage coaches, which gradually made their 

 way, until in the eighteenth century they were boldly advertised as 

 " Flying Coaches " — the Newcastle to London, named " The Flyer," 

 flew for nine days on the way — a speed of about 25 miles a day. A 

 few years later an advertisement appeared which said that " incredible 

 as it may appear, this coach will actually arrive in London four days 

 and a half after leaving Manchester." 



Then, just as now, these modest steps of progress were denounced by 

 the wiseacres of the day as tending to ruin the country. Carriages 

 were spoken of as " upstart hell-carts and coaches," just as now reverend 

 gentlemen speak of motor-cars as satanic. We read that innkeepers 

 complained of the speed at which " people flew through the country." 

 One John Cressit declared that " these coaches are one of the greatest 

 mischiefs to the public, destructive to trade and prejudicial to lands " 

 — and specially injurious to tailors and hatters, as gentlemen who rode 

 on horseback spoiled their clothes and hats and required to renew 

 them often, whereas clothes lasted longer when one travelled by coach, 

 and so the clothier and hatter lost custom. And Taylor, the poet- 

 wherryman, bursts forth : — 



" Carroches, coaches, jades and Flanders mares 



Do rob us of our shares, our wares, our faros, 

 Against the ground we stand and knock our heels, 

 Whilst all our profit runs away on wheels." 



All this time the roads were as bad as ever. Here is an eloquent 

 wail indicating what had to be endured : 



" Is it for a man's health to travel with tired jades, and to be 

 laid fast in foul ways, and forced to wade up to the knees in mire . . . 

 to liave their tackle, or pearch, or axle-tree broken, and then to wait 

 hours to have them mended, and then to travel all night to make 

 good their stage ?" 



One more quotation, referring to the year 1737, is interesting as 

 it speaks of a road which must have })assed not many hundred yards 

 from this spot. Lord Hervey, who wrote from Kensington in that 

 year, says : — 



