Early Carriages 41 



as York, Chester and Exeter, are certainly interesting. One 

 learns from the pamphlet that there were, in addition, stage 

 coaches then going to " almost every town within 20 or 25 miles 

 of London." 



The writer also sought to discredit coaches on the ground that 

 they were bad for trade ! " These Coaches and Caravans," 

 he said, " are destructive to the Trade and Manufactures 

 of the Kingdom, and have impoverished many Thousands of 

 Families, whose subsistence depended upon the manufacturing 

 of Wool and Leather, two of the Staple Commodities of the 

 Kingdom." It was not only that saddlers and others were 

 being cast on the parish, but tailors and drapers were also 

 suffering because in two or three journeys on horseback 

 travellers spoiled their clothes and hats " Which done, 

 they were forced to have new very often, and that increased 

 the consumption of the manufactures, and the employment 

 of the Manufacturers, which travelling in Coaches doth no 

 way do." 



All this must have seemed grave enough to the good 

 alarmist ; but there was still worse to come, for he goes on to 

 say that 



" Passage to London being so easy, Gentlemen come to 

 London oftener than they need, and their Ladies either with 

 them, or, having the Conveniences of these Coaches, quickly 

 follow them. And when they are there, they must be in the 

 Mode, buy all their Cloaths there, and go to Plays, Balls, and 

 Treats, where they get such a Habit of Jollity and a Love to 

 Gayety and Pleasure, that nothing afterwards in the Country 

 will serve them, if ever they should fix their minds to live 

 there again ; but they must have all from London, whatever 

 it costs." 



Fearing, perhaps, that these various arguments might not 

 suffice to discredit the coaches, the pamphleteer has much 

 to say about the discomforts of those conveyances : 



" Travelling in these Coaches can neither prove advan- 

 tageous to Men's Health or Business ; For what Advantage 

 is it to Men's Health to be called out of their beds into these 

 Coaches, an Hour before Day in the Morning, to be hurried 

 in them from Place to Place till one Hour, two or three within 

 Night ; insomuch that, after sitting all Day in the Summer- 

 time stifled with Heat and choaked with Dust; or in the 



