THE FIRST MOTOR-CAR 29 



Bath would not have cost less than £11. Nor would 

 there then have been any advantage in pace, for post- 

 chaises generally attained a speed of ten miles an hour, 

 when the best coaches were doing twelve. Still, there 

 were those who posted, ready to pay, both in money 

 and time, for their privacy ; for the wealthy Briton of 

 that day was apt to be an extremely haughty and 

 insufferable person, and preferred to travel like a 

 Grand Llama, even though he paid heavily for it in 

 coin and discomfort. 



Almost the last scene in this " strange eventful 

 history " of road-travelling in the past was enacted in 

 1829, when Mr. Gurney's "steam-carriage" conveyed 

 a number of people from London to Bath. The 

 vehicle did not meet with the approval of the rustics, 

 and at Melksham an angry mob, armed with stones, 

 assailed the travellers, loudly denouncing the unholy 

 thing. From Cranford Bridge to Reading, the speed 

 was at the rate of sixteen miles an hour, and so 

 delio-hted were those concerned with the result of the 

 experiment that an announcement was made that 

 "immediate measures" would be taken "to brino; 

 carriages of the sort into action on the roads." It 

 has, however, been left to these last few years to 

 re-introduce the motor-car, with results yet to be seen. 

 Such was travel on the road in olden times. To- 

 day one travels to Bath in a fraction of the time 

 at less than half the cost ; the 107 miles railway 

 journey from Paddington occupies exactly two hours, 

 and a third-class ticket costs 85. \\d. 



As these lines are being written, the last of the old 

 coachins^ inns from which some of the Bath stashes 



