2 6 STAGE-COACH AND MAIL IN DA YS OF YORE 



stable-keepers for horses on the Avay, or else, 

 taking their most poAverful horses from the plough, 

 harnessed four or six of them to their private 

 vehicle, and so, with the driving of their best 

 ploughman, came to the capital in state, much to 

 the amusement of the fashionables of Piccadilly 

 and St. James's. 



We must, however, suppose, from the fury of 

 Cresset's Heasons for ^'uppressing htage Coaches, of 

 1662, that some of the less enersretic anions^ the 

 country gentlemen had already succumbed to 

 the discreditable practice of travelling in them. 

 In his pages we leai-n something of AA'hat a 

 horseman's life on the road was like, and Avhat 

 he escaped by taking to the coach. The hardy 

 race became soft and grievously enervated by the 

 unwonted luxury ; their muscles slackened, and 

 they developed an infirmity of purpose that 

 rendered them no lons-er able to " endure frost, 

 snow, or rain, or to lodge in the fields " — trifling 

 inconveniences and incidents of travel which, it 

 appears, they had previously been accustomed to 

 support Avith that cheerfulness or resignation with 

 Avhicli one faces the inevitable and incurable. 



But Cresset had other indictments, throwing a 

 flood of light upon what the horseman endured in 

 wear and tear of body, mind, and wearing apparel : 

 " Most gentlemen, l)efore they travelled in 

 coaches, used to ride with swords, belts, pistols, 

 holsters, j^ortmanteaus and hat-cases, which in 

 these coaches they have little or no use for ; for, 

 when they rode on horseback, they rode in one 



