Early Carriages 39 



ways, free from cndamaging one's health and one's body by 

 hard jogging or over- violent motion on horse back, and this 

 not only at the low price of about a shilling for every five 

 miles but with such velocity and speed in one hour as the 

 foreign post can but make in one day." 



The " admirable commodiousness " which thus beat the 

 world's record of that date was a vehicle without either 

 springs or windows, which carried four, six or eight passengers 

 inside. Over the axle there was a great basket for luggage 

 and a few outside passengers, who made themselves as com- 

 fortable as they could among the bags and boxes, a few hand- 

 fuls of straw being, in their case, the only concession to luxury. 

 The earliest coaches carried neither passengers nor luggage 

 on the roof, this arrangement coming into vogue later. In 

 order that people should not be deterred from travelling in 

 these conveyances by fear of highwaymen, it was announced, in 

 the case of some of them, that the guards were armed and that 

 the coaches themselves were " bullet proof." 



As against the eulogy of Dr Chamberlayne it might be 

 mentioned that the introduction of stage-coaches was regarded 

 with great disfavour by another writer, John Cressett, who 

 published, in 1672, a pamphlet entitled " The Grand Concern 

 of England Explained in Several Proposals to Parliament " 

 (reprinted in Harleian Miscellany, vol. viii.). Cressett evidently 

 belonged to those adherents to " good old times " conditions 

 who are opposed to all innovations ; but his pamphlet affords 

 much information as to the general conditions of travel at the 

 time he wrote. 



Cressett asked, among other things, " that a stop be put 

 to further buildings in and about London " ; " that brandy, 

 coffee, mum, tea and chocolate may be prohibited " ; and 

 " that the multitude of Stage-coaches and caravans may be 

 suppressed." It is with the last-mentioned demand, only, 

 that we have here any " grand concern." In amplifying it 

 he recommends " That the Multitude of Stage-coaches and 

 Caravans now travelling upon the Roads may all, or most of 

 them, be suppressed, especially those within forty, fifty, or 

 sixty Miles of London, where they are no Way necessary." 



The indictment he prefers against the coaches is in the 

 following terms : 



" These Coaches and Caravans are one of the greatest 



