42 History of Inland Transport 



Winter-time starving and freezing with cold, or choaked with 

 filthy Fogs, they are often brought into their Inns by Torch- 

 light, when it is too late to sit up to get a Supper ; and next 

 Morning they are forced into the Coach so early, that they can 

 get no Breakfast. . . . 



" Is it for a Man's Health to travel with tired Jades, and to 

 be laid fast in the foul ways and forced to wade up to the 

 knees in Mire ; afterwards sit in the Cold, till Teams of Horses 

 can be sent to pull the Coach out ? Is it for their Health to 

 travel in rotten Coaches, and to have their Tackle, or Pearch 

 or Axle-tree broken, and then to wait three or four hours, 

 sometimes half a day, to have them mended, and then to travel 

 all Night to make good their Stage ? " 



And so on, and so on, until we come to the moral of the 

 story, which is that people should refuse to patronise such 

 innovations as stage-coaches, keep to the ways of their fore- 

 fathers, and do their travelling on horseback. If they could 

 not do that, and needs must ride in a vehicle, let them be 

 content with the long coaches (i.e. long waggons) which were 

 " More convenient than running coaches . . . for they travel 

 not such long journeys, go not out so early in the Morning, 

 neither come they in so late at night ; but stay by the Way, 

 and travel easily, without jolting Men's Bodies or hurrying 

 them along, as the running Coaches do." 



But the denunciations, arguments and vigorous pleadings 

 of this " Lover of his Country," as the author of " The Grand 

 Concern " called himself, were all of no avail. The march of 

 progress had taken another step forward, and England found 

 it had now entered definitely on the Coaching Era. 



