to STAGE-COACH AND MAIL IN DAYS OF YORE 



" This," we find him saying, on another occasion, 

 " is the rattling, rowling, rumbling age, and the 

 world runnes on wheeles. The hackney-men, Avho 

 were wont to have furnished travellers in all 

 places with fitting and serviceable horses for any 

 journey, are (by the multitude of coaches) undone 

 by the dozens." 



The bitter cry of Taylor and the Tliames 

 watermen may or may not have been hearkened 

 to, but certainly hackney-coaches were prohibited 

 in 1635. This, however, was probably due rather to 

 Royal whim or prejudice than to any consideration 

 for a decaying trade. 



It was an arbitrary age, and it only needed a 

 Star Chamber order for public carriages, considered 

 by the Court to be a nuisance, to be suppressed. 

 The reasons advanced read curiously at this time : 

 "His Majesty, perceiving that of late the great 

 numbers of hackney-coaches were grown a great 

 disturbance to the King, Queen, and nobility 

 through the streets of the said city, so as the 

 common passage was made dangerous and the 

 rates and prices of hay and provender and other 

 provisions of the stable thereby made exceeding 

 dear, hath thought fit, with the advice of his 

 Privy Council, to publish his Royal pleasure, for 

 reformation therein." His Majesty therefore 

 commanded that no hackney-coaches should be 

 used in London unless they were engaged to 

 travel at least three miles out of town, and 

 owners of such coaches were to keep sufiicient 

 able horses and geldings, fit for his Majesty's 



