The Coaching Era 57 



which now generally aimed at doing their eight or nine miles 

 an hour ; but here, again, much depended on the state of the 

 roads. 



Supplementary to the coaching there was the system of 

 " posting," favoured by those who did not care to patronise 

 public vehicles, and could afford the luxury of independent 

 travel. In the earliest form of the posting system, that is, 

 in the days when wheeled vehicles had not yet come into 

 general use, and people did their journeys on horseback, 

 travellers hired horses only at the recognised posting places ; 

 and Fynes Moryson, in his " Itinerary," narrating the con- 

 ditions in 1617, says a " passenger " having a " commission " 

 from the chief postmaster " shall pay 2^d. each mile for his 

 horse and the same for his guide's horse ; but one guide 

 will serve the whole company, tho' many ride together." 

 Travellers without a " commission " had to pay 3d. a mile. 

 The guide, presumably, brought back the horses, and, also, 

 really guided the traveller a matter of no slight importance 

 when the roads were often simply tracks over unenclosed spaces 

 with no finger-posts to point the way. 



Another form of posting was the hire from place to place 

 of horses for use in private carriages ; but the more general 

 form was the hiring of both horse and post-chaise a four- 

 wheeled vehicle, accommodating, generally, three persons, 

 and having a roof on which luggage could be strapped. Posting 

 was a costly mode of travelling, only possible for people of 

 wealth and distinction. Harper calculates that to " post " 

 from London to Edinburgh must have cost at least ^30 ; but 

 it was no unusual thing, about the middle of the eighteenth 

 century, for the Scotch newspapers to publish advertisements 

 by gentlemen who proposed to " post " to London, inviting 

 others to join them with a view to sharing the expense. 



The condition of the streets in the towns being often no 

 improvement on that of the roads in the country, the develop- 

 ment of vehicular traffic, even there, was but slow. It was 

 the example of Queen Elizabeth in riding in a " coach " 

 through the streets of London that led to private carriages 

 becoming fashionable, since, following thereon, " divers 

 great ladies " had coaches made, and went about in them 

 much to the admiration of the populace, but much, also, to 

 the concern of the Thames watermen, who regarded the 



