STAGE COACHES IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 9 



CHAPTER III. 



STAGE COACHES IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 



Stage coaching became general between the years 1662 

 and 1703. The stage coaches running between London 

 and York, Chester, and Exeter, at this period did not run 

 at all during winter, but were laid up for the season like 

 ships during arctic frosts, and were what we now call 

 ' butterflies.' Sometimes the roads were so bad, even in 

 summer, that it was all the horses could do to drag the 

 coach alone, the passengers having perforce to walk for 

 miles together. In the case of the York coach especially 

 the difficulties were formidable. Not only were the 

 roads bad, but the low Midland counties were especially 

 liable to floods ; and during their prevalence it was 

 nothing unusual for passengers to remain at some town 

 en route for days together, until the roads were dry. 



Public opinion was divided as to the merits of stage 

 coach travelling. When the new mode threatened alto- 

 gether to supersede the old mode of travelling on horse- 

 back, great opposition manifested itself; and the organs 

 of public opinion began to revile the new. One pam- 

 phleteer went so far as to denounce the introduction of 

 stage coaches as the greatest evil ' that had happened 

 of late years in these kingdoms ; ' ' mischievous to the 

 public, prejudicial to trade, and destructive to lands.' 

 ' Those who travel in these coaches contract an idle habit 

 of body, become weary and listless when they have rode 



