70 STAGE-COACH AND MAIL IN DAYS OF YORE 



Oxford coach did not call itself hy so high- 

 sounding a title, it made a hetter pace than the 

 Bath affair, doing the fifty-four miles in one day, 

 between the hours of six o'clock in the morning 

 and seven in the evening. Moreover, its fare — 

 twelve shillings, reduced tAvo years later to ten — 

 was somewhat cheaper. Perhaps one was ahvays 

 charged higher rates on the fashionable Bath 

 Eoad. 



How, in this thirteen years' interval between 

 1657 and 1669, had the older stages progressed ? 

 The Chester stage was going its way, promising 

 to do the distance in five days, but taking six^ 

 a sad falling off from the original four ; of the 

 others, presumably continuing, we hear nothing 

 further, and of new ventures there is not a 

 whisper. Yet it is surely not to be supposed 

 that, at a time when coaches ran to Bath, 

 to York, to Coventry, and to Norwich, such a 

 place (for instance) as Bristol would be Avithout 

 that convenience. Por Bristol Avas then Avhat 

 Glasgow is now — the second city. London came 

 first, with its half a million inhabitants ; Bristol 

 came next, with some 28,000, and NorAvich third, 

 with 27,000. It is, then, only fair to assume that 

 other coaches existed of Avhose story nothing has 

 survived. A strong reason for coming to this con- 

 clusion is found in the pul)lication in 1673 of 

 Cresset's violent tirade against coaches, not, 

 surely, called forth apropos of the already old- 

 established stages, but provoked, doul)tless, by 

 some sudden increase, of which a\ e, at this lapse 



