COMMON STAGES AND HACKNEY COACHES. 7 



first day and eighteen-pence for each succeeding day that 

 the horse was required by the traveller. Lastly, the 

 carriers had long covered waggons, in which they carried 

 passengers from city to city ; but this kind of journeying 

 is described as so tedious, that none but women and 

 people of inferior condition, or strangers (among whom 

 he particularly instances the Flemings, their wives and 

 servants), avail themselves of it. 



It was in 16 19 that the Duke of Buckingham set the 

 example of being drawn by six horses. The Earl of 

 Northumberland, partly not to be outdone, and partly out 

 of ridicule, immediately began to drive eight, which in 

 this day no one in England but Queen Victoria may do. 



In 1640, the Dover Road, owing to the extent of 

 Continental traffic constantly kept up, was perhaps the 

 best in England. Yet three or four days were often 

 consumed in the journey between Dover and London. 



Chamberlayn in his ' Present state of Great Britain ' 

 (1649), thus speaks up for stage coaches : ' Besides the 

 excellent arrangement of conveying men and letters on 

 horseback, there is of late such an admirable commo- 

 diousness, both for men and women to travel from 

 London to the principal towns in the country, that the 

 like hath not been known in the world : and that is by 

 stage coaches, wherein anyone may be transported to 

 any place sheltered from foul weather and foul ways, free 

 from endamaging of one's health and one's body by hard 

 jogging or over-violent motion ; and this not only at a 

 low price (about a shilling for every five miles) but with 



