INLAND CONVEYANCE. 



melioration in our social condition, and will 

 doubtless, in a century hence, be quoted for their 

 short-sighted folly, though at present meeting 

 with countenance from a large class of the com- 

 munity. 



Notwithstanding the introduction of stage- 

 coaches in the seventeenth century, they were 

 placed only on the principal roads, and used 

 almost exclusively by persons of refined taste and 

 wealth. The popular mode of conveyance con- 

 tinued for at least a century afterwards to be by 

 stage-wagons ; these were very large and cumber- 

 some machines, drawn by six or eight horses, and 

 devoted chiefly to the carriage of goods to and 

 from the metropolis. The only part of the vehicle 

 which afforded accommodation to passengers was 

 the tail of the wagon, as it was called, a reserved 

 space with a hooped-up cover at the hinder part 

 of the machine ; and here, sitting upon straw as 

 they best could, some half-dozen passengers were 

 slowly conveyed we should rather say jolted on 

 their journey. 



The wagons thus employed in the double office 

 of carrying both goods and passengers were, as we 

 have said, confined chiefly to the great lines of 

 road in England. On all the less important 

 routes, and particularly in Scotland, the only 

 means of conveyance for goods was by pack-horses. 



These animals were loaded with sacks thrown 

 across the back ; and if not too heavy, piled to a 

 considerable height. A number together were 

 generally conducted in a line along the narrow and 

 badly constructed paths, that which went before 

 carrying a bell, by the tinkling sound of which the 

 cavalcade was kept from straggling after night- 

 fall. This primitive mode of conveyance continued 

 in operation in some parts of the country till the 

 year 1780 or thereabouts, when one-horse carts 

 came into use. 



The length of time consumed in journeys by 

 even the best kind of carriages of past times, is 

 now matter for surprise. The stage-coach which 

 went between London and Oxford in the reign of 

 Charles II. required two days, though the space is 

 only fifty-eight miles. That to Exeter (168^ miles) 

 required four days. In 1703, when Prince George 

 of Denmark went from Windsor to Petworth to 

 meet Charles III. of Spain, the distance being 

 about forty miles, he required fourteen hours for 

 the journey, the last nine miles taking six. The 

 person who records this fact says, that the long 

 time was the more surprising, as, except when 

 overturned, or when stuck fast in the mire, his 

 Royal Highness made no stop during the journey. 



In 1742, stage-coaches must have been more 

 numerous in England than in Charles I I.'s time ; 

 but it does not appear that they moved any faster. 



The journey from London to Birmingham (116 

 miles) then occupied nearly three days. 



Of the stage-coach journey to Bath about 1748, 

 we learn some particulars from Smollett's cele- 

 brated novel. Mr Random enters the coach 

 before daylight. It proceeds. A highwayman 

 attacks it before breakfast, and is repulsed by the 

 gallantry of the hero. Strap meanwhile accom- 

 panies the coach on horseback. A night is spent 

 on the road, and the journey is finished next day, 

 apparently towards evening 108 miles ! At that 

 time there was no regular stage-coach from 

 London to Edinburgh ; and the newspapers of 

 the latter city occasionally present advertise- 

 ments, stating that an individual about to proceed 

 to the metropolis by a post-chaise would be glad to 

 hear of a fellow-adventurer, or more, to lessen 

 the expenses for mutual convenience. However, 

 before 1754, there was a stage-coach between the 

 two British capitals, as appears from an advertise- 

 ment in the Edinburgh Courant. The journey 

 occupied twelve days, being at the rate of thirty- 

 three miles a day. So lately as the end of the 

 last century, the journey by the stage between 

 Edinburgh and Glasgow (forty-two miles) occu- 

 pied a whole day, the passengers stopping to dine 

 on the road. It was considered a great improve- 

 ment when, in 1799, a coach was started with four 

 horses which performed the journey in six hours. 



ROADS. 



It will appear, from the preceding notices re- 

 specting travelling and modes of carriage for goods, 

 that little or no improvement could be expected in 

 either case till a great change for the better was 

 made on the state of the roads. In no branch of 

 art do our ancestors seem to have been more 

 deficient or heedless than in that of making roads, 

 and keeping them in constant repair. In this 

 respect, indeed, they were in a condition of greater 

 ignorance than the ancient Romans, whose roads 

 were on the most extensive and efficient scale, 

 suitable to the necessities of the period, and may 

 here be shortly described. 



Ancient Roman Roads. 



The Romans are entitled to be called the first 

 and best road-makers of whom history has pre- 

 served any account. One great leading principle 

 actuated the Roman authorities in establishing 

 roads : it was that of maintaining their military 

 conquests. 



Speaking of the subordinate Roman capitals in 

 Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt, Gibbon describes 

 as follows the manner in which they were con- 

 nected by roads : 'All these cities were connected 

 with each other and with the capital by the public 

 highways, which, issuing from the Forum at 

 Rome, traversed Italy, pervaded the provinces, 

 and were terminated only by the frontiers of the 

 empire. If we carefully trace the distance from 

 the wall of Antoninus [in Scotland] to Rome, and 

 from thence to Jerusalem, it will be found that the 

 great chain of communication, from the north-west 

 to the south-east point of the empire, was drawn 

 out to the length of 4080 Roman [or 3740 English] 

 miles. The public roads were accurately divided 

 by milestones, and ran in a direct line from one 

 city to another, with very little respect for the 



