EARLY COACHES 9 



nessed to his private coach; a piece of arrogance that so 

 enraged the haughty old Earl of Northumberland that 

 he determined to surpass it, and promptly appeared 

 with a coach and eight, "and drove through the city of 

 London to Bath, to the vulgar talk and admiration." 



Considering the state of the Bath Road at that time, 

 the eight horses, no doubt, had all they could do to pull 

 the heavy coach through the quagmires that encom- 

 passed it. Noble and intrepid pioneers suffered for their 

 pride, when their coaches stuck fast or were over- 

 turned in tjie mud, and highwaymen, never renowned 

 as respecSlers of persons, relieved them of their valuables 

 on lonely heaths, whither they had wandered and lost 

 their way. Except being upset, nothing was so easy for 

 these early travellers as to lose their way; indeed, in 

 consequence of the absence of signposts, and the 

 difficulty of telling roads from cart tracks, they were 

 likely to arrive at an entirely different destination from 

 the one they set out for. 



After the Restoration, private carriages are often 

 mentioned in the news letters of the time, chiefly on 

 account of the accidents which so very frequently befell 

 them. Thus in 1679: 



"We hear that the Duke of Monmouth lately passing 

 over the ferry at Windsor with his coach and six horses, 

 two of the horses in the passage leapt over the boat into 

 the water, and endangered the drawing of the coach 

 after them, had not one of the servants cut the traces, 

 and let them go, thereby preventing any further mischief 

 which might have happened." 



