CHAPTER II STAGE-COACHES 



FROM hackney-coaches and stage - waggons, 

 stage - coaches were a natural transition, and 

 though it is impossible to assign the exadt date 

 of their introdudlion it was probably about the 

 year 1640. A play called The Committee though 

 first acted in 1665, portrays the customs and habits of 

 the reign of Charles I, and in the opening scene the 

 coachmen and passengers of the Reading stage-coach 

 enter. The coachman receives his tip "a groat of more 

 than ordinary thinness," as he scathingly terms it, and a 

 lady, anxious to impress the rest of the company, laments 

 that her own coach is out of repair, declaring her hus- 

 band would be furious if he knew she rode in a public 

 coach. 



The first authentic reference comes from a most 

 unlikely quarter — from John Taylor. Apparently he had 

 overcome his bitter hatred of hackney-coaches — which 

 he used to refer to as "hell carts" — for in 1548 he 

 managed to write of a stage-coach without one abusive 

 adjeftive: 



"Myself in proper person took this journey; 



Two gentlewomen (by two maids attended) 



Accompanied me till my travels ended, 



We took one coach, two coachmen, and foure horses, 



And merrily from London made our courses. 



We wheel'd the top of th' heavy hill called Holborne 



(Up which hath full many a sinful soul borne) 



And so along we jolted past St. Gileses, 



Which place from Brainford six (or neare) seven miles is. 



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