COACHING IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 91 



announced that the " ' Exeter Past Coach,' for 

 the better conveyance of travellers, starts every 

 Monday from the ' Saracen's Head,' Skinner Street, 

 Snow Hill." This also, although it promised to 

 get to Exeter in three days and a half, usually 

 took six days in winter. 



Its programme was thus set out : — 



Monday. — Dines at Egham ; lies at Murrell's 

 Green. 



Tuesday. — Dines at Sutton; lies at the " Plume 

 of Peathers," in Salisbury. 



Wednesday. — Dines at Elandford; lies at the 

 " King's Arms," in Dorchester. 



Thursday. — At one o'clock, Exeter. 



It carried six inside, but no outsides. 



But let us be just to the coach-proprietors 

 whose fate it was to work the Exeter Road at that 

 time. In that very year a correspondent Avrote to 

 the Gentleman s 3Ia(jazine pointing out the dread- 

 ful character of that road. " After the first forty- 

 seven miles from London," he said, " you never 

 set eye on a turnpike." There were turnpikes, 

 and, by consequence, well-kept roads, on the way 

 to Bath, and he declared that every one who knew 

 anything at all about road-travelling Avent to 

 Exeter by way of Bath. As for the country along 

 the Exeter Boad, it was reputed to be picturesque, 

 but the state of the road forbade any one making 

 its acquaintance. " Dorchester is to us a terra 

 incognita^ and the map-makers might, if they 

 pleased, fill the vacuities of Devon and Cornwall 



