DAWN OF THE COACHING AGE 63 



It now took a day lono;er to reach Chester — 

 assuming' that the promise to perform the journey 

 in four days ever was kept ; and it will be 

 observed that Birmingham, Shrewsbury, and other 

 places, on a different route than that through 

 Lichfield and Stone, are named in the manner of 

 an alternative. The Chester stage of this year, 

 in fact, varied its itinerary to suit its passengers. 

 The "by us, who have performed it two years," 

 looks suspiciously like an opposition already 

 threatened; while the "four able horses" insisted 

 on (but not mentioned in the first announcement) 

 reads like an imjirovement upon a former team 

 that was not able. Those, of course, were times 

 before horses Avere generally changed on the 

 way, and the same long-suffering beasts that 

 dragged the coaches from London often brought 

 them to their destination. According to the first 

 advertisement of this Chester stage, quoted above, 

 this particular coach was an exception to the 

 usual 2^i"^ctice, and actually had fresh horses once 

 a day. 



A stage seems to have plied between London 

 and Oxford in 1661, but new coaches for a time 

 were few, and it is said that there were but six 

 in 1662. In the folloAving year a coach of sorts 

 ran from Preston in Lancashire to London ; and, 

 as may be gathered from a letter from Edward 

 Parker to his father, it was a very primitive 

 contrivance : — 



" I got to London on Saturday last ; my 

 journey was noe way pleasant, being forced to 



