CHAPTER XXIV 



END OF THE COACHING ERA 



WHAT are known as the " palmy days " of the coaching era 

 began about the year 1820, and lasted until 1836. By 1820 

 the improvements in road-making of Telford and McAdam 

 had led to quicker travelling and the running of far more 

 coaches, at greater speeds, than had previously been the 

 case. By 1836 it was evident that coaching had reached the 

 climax of its popularity, and could not hope to maintain its 

 position against the competition of the railways which were 

 spreading so rapidly throughout the land. 



Over 3000 coaches were then on the road, and half of these 

 began or ended their journeys in London. Some 150,000 

 horses were employed in running them, and there were about 

 30,000 coachmen, guards, horse-keepers and hostlers, while 

 many hundreds of taverns, in town or country, prospered on 

 the patronage the coaches brought them. From one London 

 tavern alone there went every day over eighty coaches to 

 destinations in the north. From another there went fifty- 

 three coaches and fifty-one waggons, chiefly to the west of 

 England. Altogether coaches or waggons were going from 

 over one hundred taverns in the City or in the Borough. 



Big interests grew up in connection with the coaching 

 enterprise. William Chaplin, who owned five yards in London, 

 had, at one time, nearly 2000 horses, besides many coaches. 

 Out of twenty-seven mail-coaches leaving London every 

 night he " horsed " fourteen. He is said to have made a 

 fortune of half a million of money out of the business ; but 

 when he began to realise what the locomotive would do he 

 took his coaches off the road, disposed of his stock before 

 the railways had depreciated it, joined with Benjamin Home, 

 of the " Golden Cross," Charing Cross, who had himself had 

 a large stock of horses, and founded the carrying firm of 



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