CHAPTER IV 



GKOWTH OF COACHING IN THE EIGHTEENTH 

 CENTURY 



All this while the stages had gone their journeys 

 with the same horses from end to end, and travel 

 was necessarily sIoav. To the superficial glance it 

 would seem that neither the dictates of humanity 

 towards animals nor even the faintest glimmering 

 perception of the possibilities of speed in constant 

 relays had then dawned uj)on coach-proprietors; but 

 it would 1)0 too gross an error to convict a whole 

 class of stupidity so dense and brutal. It is not to 

 be supposed that, at a time when ten-mile relays 

 of saddle-horses for gentlemen riding post were 

 common throughout the kingdom, the advantages 

 of frequent changes and fresh animals were hidden 

 from men whose daily business it was to do with 

 coaches and horses. The real reasons for the bad old 

 practice were many. They lay in the uncertainty of 

 passengers, in the extreme difficulty of arranging for 

 changes at known places of call, and, above all, in 

 the impossilnlity of those, coaches changing whose 

 route between given starting-point and destination 

 was altered to suit the convenience of travellers. 



The first hint of quicker travel and of a better 

 age for horses is obtained in this advertisement of 

 the Newcastle " Flying Coach," May 9th, 1734 :— 



