ILYING COACHES. 13 



journey between the two places, to and fro, was 

 completed in six days. 



At tbe close of the reign of Charles II. flying 

 carriages ran thrice a week from London to all 

 the chief towns ; but no stage-coach appears 

 to have proceeded further north than York, or 

 further west than Exeter. The ordinary day's 

 journey of a flying coach was about fifty miles 

 in the Summer; but in Winter, when the ways 

 were bad and the nights long, little more than 

 thirty miles. 



The Chester coach, the York coach, and the 

 Exeter coach generally reached London in four 

 days during the fine season, but at Christmas 

 not till the sixth day. The passengers, six in 

 number, were all seated in the carriage ; for 

 accidents were so frequent that it would have 

 been most perilous to mount the roof. The 

 ordinary fare was about two-pence half-penny 

 a mile in Summer, and somewhat more in 

 Winter. 



" This mode of travelling, which by English- 

 men of the present day would be regarded as 

 insuff'erably slow, seemed to our ancestors won- 

 derfully, and indeed alarmingly rapid ; for, in 

 a work published a few months before the death 

 of Charles II., the flying coaches are extolled 



