COACHING MISERIES 9 



" saw his duty a dead sure thing," he " went for it, 

 there and then." He would seem to have secured it, 

 too, for he held the road for many years against all 

 rivals, and was, moreover, landlord of one of the 

 foremost hostelries on the road — the "Crown," at 

 Salt Hill. 



His rivals were many, and, considering the popu- 

 larity to which Bath soon attained, they must all have 

 done well. Indeed, the establishment of a new coach 

 to Bath would now appear to have been a favourite 

 form of speculation, and Londoners found many such 

 advertisements as the followinsf : — 



'•'■ Tkiihj Alive like I- . April i>, 1737. 

 " For Bath. 

 " A ofood Co.icb and able Horses will set out from tlie ' Black 

 Swan ' Inn, in TTolbnrn, on Wednesday or Thursday. 



" Encjuire of William Mau])." 



The invalid who trusted himself to the stao^e-coach 

 of that period had, however, many risks to run. 

 Doctors might recommend the waters, but before 

 the patient reached them he had to endure a two 

 days' journey, and even at that to bear a very 

 martyrdom of bumps and jolts. For that was just 

 before the time when coach-proprietors began to 

 announce "comfortable" coaches "with springs," just 

 as, a little earlier, thev had laid OTeat stress on their 

 conveyances being glazed, and (to skip the centuries) 

 as railway companies nowadays advertise dining and 

 drawing room cars. Here are some coaching woes : — 



" Just as you are going off, with only one other person on your 

 side of the coach, who, you flatter yourself, is the last — seeing the 

 door opened suddenly, and the landlady, coachman, guard, etc.. 



