14 THE BRIGHTON ROAD 



Borough," that shs " got into," is still in the Borough 

 High Street. It is a fine and flourishing remnant of 

 an ancient galleried hostelry of the time of Chaucer, 

 and it is characteristic of the continuity of English 

 social, as well as political history that, although 

 waggons and coaches no longer come to or set out 

 from the " George," its spacious yard is now a railway 

 receiving-office for goods, where the railway vans, 

 those descendants of the stage-waggon, thunderously 

 come and go all day. 



It will be observed that the traffic in those days 

 went to and from Southwark, which was then the 

 great business centre for the carriers. Not yet was 

 the Brighton road measured from Westminster Bridge, 

 for the adequate reason that there was no bridge at 

 Westminster until 1749 : only the ferrv from the 

 Horseferry Road to Lambeth. 



Widow Smith's waggon halted at Lewes, and it is 

 not until ten years later than the date of her advertise- 

 ment that we hear of the Brighthelmstone conveyance. 

 The first was that announced by the pioneer. James 

 Batchelor, in The Sussex Weekly Advertiser. May 12th. 

 1756 : 



NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the LEWES ONE 

 DAY STAGE COACH or CHAISE sets out from the 

 Talbot Inn, in the Borough, on Saturday next, the 19th 

 instant. 



When likewise the Brighthelmstone Stage begins. 



Performed (if God permit) by 



JAMES BATCHELOR. 



The " Talbot " inn, which stood on the site of the 

 ancient " Tabard," of Chaucerian renown, disappeared 

 from the Borough High Street in 1870. What its 

 picturesque yard was like in 1815, with the waggons 

 of the Sussex carriers, let the illustration tell. 



Let us halt awhile, to admire the courage of those 

 coaching and waggoning pioneers who, in the days 

 before " the sea-side " had been invented, and few 

 people travelled, dared the awful roads for what must 



