DAWN OF THE COACHING AGE 73 



Cresset was also of opinion that the greater 

 numl)er of the many roadside inns woukl lose their 

 trade owing to the rapidity of coach-travelling. 

 Here, at least, he exceeded his brief, for coaches 

 by no means attained so speedy a rate of travel as 

 that reached by horsemen. Thoresby, ten years 

 later, is a case in point. He was wont to travel 

 horseback between Leeds and London in four days, 

 but when he journeyed from York to London in 

 the coach, no greater distance than from Leeds, 

 it took six days. Swift, too, in 1710, rode from 

 Chester to London in five days ; when the de- 

 generating Chester stage, which had started to 

 perform it in 1657 in four days, had already taken 

 one additional day, and was about to take another. 

 Cresset, summing up such ol)jectionable things as 

 " rotten coaches" and traces, and coachmen "surly, 

 dogged, and ill-natured," advocated the total sup- 

 pression of such methods of travelling, or at least 

 — counsels of moderation prevailing — of most of 

 them. In conclusion, he proposed that coaches 

 should be limited to one for every county town in 

 England, to go backwards and forwards once a 

 week. 



Unhappily for Cresset's peace of mind, coaches 

 did not decay. Nor did they wilt and Avither 

 before the onslaught of another writer, who, under 

 the pen-name of " A Country Tradesman," pub- 

 lished a pamphlet in 1078, called The Ancient 

 Trades Decayed, Repaired Again. According to 

 this writer, if coaches Avere suppressed, more wine 

 and beer would be drunk at the inns, to the great 



