STAGE-COACHES 17 



To Stanes at night at five o'clock we coasted, 

 Where, at the Bush we had bak'd, boil'd and roasted. 

 Bright Sol's illustrious Rayes the day adorning, 

 We past Bagshot and Bawbaw Friday morning. 

 That night we lodged at the White Hart at Alton, 

 And had good meate — a table with a salt on. 

 Next morn we arose with blushing cheeked Aurora; 

 The wayes were fair, but not so fair as Flora, 

 For Flora was a goddesse, and a woman, 

 And (like the highways) to all men was common. 

 Our horses with the coach, which we went into 

 Did hurry us amaine, through thick and thin too; 

 With fiery speed, the foaming bit they champt on. 

 And brought us to the Dolphin at Southampton." 



This, then, is the earliest account of a stage-coach 

 journey, and, really, if the writer had been anyone 

 but a Thames waterman, it would almost seem as if he 

 had enjoyed the experience. Notwithstanding the fiery 

 speed at which they travelled, it took them three days 

 to go from London to Southampton, though they 

 started each morning at an unconscionably early hour. 



If Taylor had overcome his hatred of coaches, his 

 place as public alarmist was as adequately filled by one 

 John Cressel, who in 1673, when there were but six stage- 

 coaches in the land, wrote a pamphlet calling for their 

 suppression. 



The indi6lments which he arrayed against them now 

 constitute the strongest arguments in their favour, and 

 we realize what an immense boon the introdu6fion of 

 stage-coaches was to the nation at large. According to 

 him, the nation was fast sinking into such a state of 



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