THE STAGE-WAGGONS 113 



exception to this picture of an uncharted wikler- 

 ness thus presented is found in the diary of Celia 

 Fiennes, who in the last decade of the seventeenth 

 century travelled through England on horseback, 

 and especially remarked the Lancashire cross-roads 

 between Wigan and Preston being furnished with 

 " hands pointing to each road, Avith ye names of 

 ye great towns on." The fact of her thinking 

 the circumstance worth noting shows us how un- 

 common it was for roads to be signposted. 



Only the waggoners who constantly used the 

 roads could Avith certainty find their Avay ; and so, 

 and for fear of the higliAvaymen and the footpads 

 and other hedgerow rascals to Avliom the smallest 

 plunder Avas not despicable, the A\^aggon Avas a 

 welcome friend to the poor. Safety was thought 

 to lie in numbers ; although it is true that, in the 

 moment of trial, even a Avaggonful of able-bodied 

 travellers Avould commonly surrender their few 

 valuables to the first demand of a single higliAvay- 

 man, whose pistol was probably unloaded, and, 

 even if primed, generally refused to " go ofi" " 

 Avlien fired. It is not unnatural to prefer to be 

 robbed in company Avitli a number of others, rather 

 than to be the solitary victim. For these reasons, 

 therefore, even the able-bodied and unencumbered 

 often chose to tediously travel with the women, 

 the infirm, and those A\^liose luggage compelled. 

 Smollett's humorous description of the stage- 

 waggon and the follies and foibles of its very 

 mixed passengers is the classic authority for this 

 stratum of road life. The sham cajitain, really a 

 VOL. I. 8 



