8g STAGE-COACH AND MAIL IN DAYS OP YOKE 



" A coach will set out towards the end of next 

 week for London, or any place on the road. To he 

 performed in nine days, heing three days sooner 

 than any other coach that travels the road : for 

 which purpose eight stout horses are stationed at 

 proper distances." 



This, we may take it, was a rival of the old 

 once-a-fortnight London and Edinhurgh stage, 

 travelling those 396 miles in fourteen days, and, 

 as we infer from ahove, reaching Newcastle in 

 twelve. At the same time John Dale came for- 

 ward with a statement that a coach would take 

 the road from Edinburgh for London, " toAvards 

 the end of each week," also in nine days; so that 

 rivalries evidently existed on the great road to the 

 north at that period. No conceivable change can 

 satisfy everyone, and these accelerated services 

 alarmed the innkeepers, who thought they saw 

 their business of lodging and entertaining travellers 

 thus doomed to decay. It Avas obvious that Avhen 

 the Edinburgh stage travelled an average of forty- 

 four miles a day instead of a mere twenty-eight or 

 twenty-nine, and lay on the road only eight nights 

 instead of thirteen, innkeepers on that route must 

 have lost much custom in the course of the year. 

 Other innkeepers on other roads gloomily heard of 

 these improvements, thought the times moved a 

 great deal too rapidly, and talked of the good old 

 days when travelling was safe and respectable, and 

 an honest licensed victualler could earn a living. 

 All these good folks were, no doubt, greatly re- 

 lieved when this sudden burst of coaching enter- 



