STAGE-COACHES 25 



and the public in general, that the coach left off flying on 

 Saturday the 14th of Oftober instant." 



With the spring they once more took the roadj and on 

 May 20th, 1682, the City Mercury contained the fol- 

 lowing announcement: 



"The coach that went last year to Epsom every 

 morning from the George in the Stocks Market and 

 vidfualling house, will begin on Thursday the first of 

 June, and goes to Mr. Tonsers, a barber, next door to the 

 new King's Head in Epsom, and returns the same day." 



The few that had the temerity to keep the road 

 through the winter had many difficulties to contend 

 with, for, putting aside the heavy snow-storms which 

 obliged them to lie up for days together, they were in 

 constant danger from floods, and there were many 

 instances of coaches being overturned and passengers 

 drowned. A newspaper of the time thus brieiiy refers 

 to an appalling state of things in Yorkshire: 



"There has been abundance of mischief done by the 

 late flood and rains, several coaches and horses, and 

 divers men and women in Yorkshire having lately been 

 lost thereby, with waggons and cattle of all sorts, and it 

 is said that two post-boys are drowned also." 



Considering the dangers and difficulties that beset 

 travellers in those days, a journey by coach occasioned 

 much thought and anxiety. The passengers, no doubt, 

 hoped most fervently that the coach would not be 

 upset, or robbed by highwaymen, and that the coachman 

 was not in league with the innkeepers to defraud them. 



