ROADS AND RATE OF SPEED. 23 



may easily conceive what a breakdown, dislocating road, 

 with ruts cut through a pavement must be.' Such was 

 the style of travelling in Britain about a century ago 

 from the time we write. Truly may we say, ' Tempora 

 mutantur et nos mutamur in illis.' Mr. Crossel's denun- 

 ciations of stage coaches in 1662 met with no more 

 respect than the tirade against the introduction of rail- 

 ways in our own times. From a newspaper of the year 

 1 779, we learn that regular post coaches, as they are 

 called, had begun to run, or we might say creep, from 

 London to Scotland. We find the advertisement on 

 the next page in the newspaper in question. 



When we consider that these coaches had no springs 

 we cannot wonder at the journey being ' very tiring.' 



Carriages at this period were built and made use of 

 under strange conditions. In illustration I may mention 

 the fact that my great-grandfather, who resided in 

 Somersetshire, wishing to have a coach built in London, 

 was obliged to send the coachbuilder the measurement 

 between the ruts of his roads, that he might have his 

 wheels arranged to run in them. This was the first 

 carriage seen in his part of the world. 



King George III. presented a state coach to the 

 Emperor of China, and on its receipt much discussion 

 took place at the Chinese court — a wheeled conveyance 

 never having been seen there before — as to which part 

 should be the seat of honour. The Emperor, after 

 mature deliberation, chose the hammer-cloth for his seat, 

 as being the place, he said, nearest to the moon — there 

 could be no doubt about it. The driver, therefore, was 



