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THE MODERN SYSTEM 



coach from London to Edinburgh ; and the 

 newspapers of the latter city occasionally pre- 

 sent advertisements, stating that an individual 

 about to proceed to the metropolis by a post- 

 chaise, would be glad to hear of a fellow-ad- 

 venturer, or more, to lessen the expences for 

 mutual convenience. 



However, before 1754 there was a stage- 

 coach between the two British capitals. In 

 the Edinburgh Courant for that year, it is 

 advertised that — " The Edinburgh stage- 

 coach, for the better accommodation of pas- 

 sengers, will be altered to a new genteel two- 

 end glass coach machine, hung on steel springs, 

 exceeding light and easy, to go in ten days in 

 summer and twelve in winter ; to set out the 

 first Tuesday in March, and continue it, from 

 Hosea Eastgate's, the Coach and Horses in 

 Dean Street, Soho, London, and from John 

 Somerville's in the Canongate, Edinburgh, 

 every other Tuesday, and meet at Burrow- 

 bridge on Saturday night, and set out from 

 thence on Monday morning, and get to London 

 and Edinburgh on Friday. In winter, to set 

 out from London and Edinburgh every other 

 (alternate) Monday morning, and to go to 

 Burrowbridge on Saturday night ; and to set 

 out from thence on Monday morning, and get 

 to London and Edinburgh on Saturday night. 

 Passengers to pay as usual. Performed, if 

 God permits, by your dutiful servant, Hosea 

 Eastgate. 



Here the distance of two hundred miles re- 

 quires six days in winter, being at the rate of 

 little more than 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) occupied 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 m 

 six hours. The railway now accomplishes the 

 same distance in about one hour and a half. 



It is not unworthy of being noticed, that, 

 when the mail-coaches were started by Mr. 

 Palmer in 1788, six and half miles an hour 

 was the utmost speed attained. Eleven miles 

 an hour has latterly been reached on various 

 occasions. 



The opening of the Manchester and Liver- 

 pool Railway, in 1830, was the era of a great 

 change in all popular ideas respecting locomo- 

 tion. When men first heard that carriages 

 upon that way proceeded, under the impulse 

 of the steam-engine, at the rate of twenty, and 

 could even attain thirty, miles an hour, th<iv 

 held up their hands in surprise. These rates 

 of speed have latterly been, and probably wilk 

 be still more surpassed. 



As a gentleman was lately walking along 

 the line of the London and Birmingham Rail- 

 way, a carriage passed him on its way to as- 

 certain the cause of the stoppage of a train. It 

 went to Harrow and returned, being twenty- 

 two miles, in twenty-seven minutes and a 

 half — the time which this gentleman required 

 to walk a mile and a half. 



This was nearly forty-six miles an hour. 

 But even a hundred has been declared to be 

 within the range of mechanical possibility. If 

 this shall ever be realized, it will be quite pos- 

 sible to go to Edinburgh and back to London 

 between the hours of breakfast and dinner. 



Meanwhile, thirty miles an hour is likely to 

 be the speed adopted for ordinary purposes on 

 the railways, by which means the distance 

 from London to Edinburgh will probably be 

 executed (when a railway has been established 

 between the two places) in about thirteen houm 



