no STAGE-COACH AND MAIL IN DAYS OF YORE 



in either direction, according to the condition of 

 the roads. 



Smollett's description of how Roderick Ran- 

 dom and Strap easily overtook the waggon jour- 

 neying to London along the Great North Road 

 naturally leads to an inquiry why, if being ill- 

 provided with money and only lightly burdened 

 with luggage, they, in common with others, pre- 

 ferred to pay for the doubtful jorivilege of going 

 slower than they could easily Avalk. The reason, 

 perhaps, lay jjartly in that lack of appreciation of 

 scenery which characterised the period. Poets had 

 not yet seen fit to rliajosodise ujion the beauties of 

 nature, and artists had not begun to paint them. 

 Both were in thrills of the most exquisite rapture 

 on the subject of shepherds and shepherdesses, but 

 their Arcady was l)ounded by bricks and mortar. 

 Strephon and Chloe Avore silk and satin, red-heeled 

 shoes and Avigs, and j^atched and powdered amaz- 

 ingly. Theirs Avas a bandbox Arcady, a pretty bit 

 of make-believe of the kind j^ictured by Watteau ; 

 and though they found much poetry in lambs, they 

 knew nothing of the AAdntry horrors experienced 

 by the genuine shej^herds in the lambing season, 

 and, indeed, nothing of nature outside the Avell- 

 ordered parks and formal gardens of the great. 

 All classes alike looked Avitli horror upon natural 

 scenery, regarded the peasantry as barbarians, and 

 left the toAvns Avith reluctance and dismay. 



With feelings of this kind animating the time, 

 it is not surprising that even humble Avayfarers, ill 

 able to spare the money, should have sought the 



