36 History of Inland Transport 



waggon went at so slow a pace that in 1640 the journey to 

 Dover often took either three or four days. 



To Bristol, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, long 

 waggons were despatched three times a week, as follows : 



LEFT LONDON. ARRIVED AT BRISTOL. 

 Wednesday Tuesday 



Saturday Friday 



Friday Thursday 



It should, however, be remembered that both the long 

 waggon and the stage-coach which succeeded it travelled only 

 by day, remaining for the night at some wayside inn where, 

 in coaching language, it " slept." 



When Charles Leigh wrote " The Natural History of 

 Lancashire, Cheshire and the Peak of Derbyshire," published 

 in 1700, the London waggons went as far north as Wigan and 

 Standish, where they took in cargoes of coals for sale on the 

 return journey. North of Wigan nearly all the trade was 

 carried on by strings of packhorses or by carts. Kendal was 

 the principal packhorse station on this line of road, sending 

 large trains of packhorses as far south as Wigan, and over the 

 hills, northward, to Carlisle and the borders of Scotland. 



In 1753, according to " Williamson's Liverpool Memoran- 

 dum Book " for that year, the Lancashire and Cheshire stage 

 waggons left London every Monday and Thursday, and were 

 ten days on the journey in summer and eleven in the winter. 

 At that time no waggon or coach from the south could get 

 nearer to Liverpool than Warrington, owing to the state of 

 the roads. The general mode of travelling was on horseback. 

 Four owners of post-horses in London advertised in 1753 

 that they started from the " Swan-with-Two-Necks," Lad 

 Lane, every Friday morning with a " gang of horses " for 

 passengers and light goods, and arrived in Liverpool on the 

 following Monday evening, this being considered very good 

 time. 



The conditions of transport between London and Edinburgh 

 in 1776, when Adam Smith published his " Wealth of Nations," 

 may be judged from the following references thereto which 

 he makes in a comparison between the cost of land transport 

 and the cost of sea transport : 



" A broad- wheeled waggon, attended by two men, and 



