1 8 THE BATH ROAD 



the most singular of these happenings was that in 

 which a liome-coming sailor was killed. A gunner 

 named John Baker was wrecked on board the frigate 

 Dlomede, oft" the coast of Trincomalee, and narrowly 

 escaped being drowned. Being picked up, he re- 

 covered sufficiently to be able to take a part in the 

 storming of that place, and was sent home with the 

 ship bearing the despatches. When he set foot again 

 in England, he must naturally have thought all 

 <langers past ; but, coming up from Bath in January, 

 1796, the coach capsized at Reading, and the unhappy 

 gunner, who had survived nil perils of 1>attle and the 

 breeze, was killed. 



A not dissimilar accident happened in July, 1827, 

 when the Bath mail was overturned between Readino- 

 and Newbury, through the horses bolting into a 

 gravel-pit. A naval officer was killedj and most of 

 the passengers injured. 



Although the latter accident happened in an age 

 of very fast coaches, it is a fact that disasters were 

 actually fewer than they had been in more leisurely 

 times. The reasons for this increased safety in times 

 when speed was vastly greater may be found in the 

 facts that the roads were better kept, and the coaches 

 better built. A whole series of Turnpike Acts had 

 been passed in the course of the previous fifty years, 

 resulting in roads as nearly perfect as roads can be, 

 while the coachbuilder's trade had become almost an 

 exact science. Had it not been for the occasional 

 recklessness or drunkenness of drivers, and the winter 

 fogs, there would be little to record in the way of 

 accidents. As it was, coachmen sometimes (but very 



