I30 STAGE-COACH AND MAIL IN DAYS OF YORE 



We have already seen something of the old 

 waggon-life, as shown by Smollett : let us now 

 inquire into the costs and charges of the journey, 

 apart from the fare. How did these humble folk 

 eat and drink, and how did they lodge for the 

 night when the waggon came to its inn at sunset ? 

 Sometimes they slept in the shelter of the waggon 

 itself, under the substantial covering of the great 

 canvas tilt, snugly curled up in the hay and 

 straw, and barricaded by the crates and boxes that 

 formed part of the load — not an altogether uncom- 

 fortable, if certainly too promiscuous, a sleeping 

 arrangement. At other times the stable-lofts of 

 the inns formed their apartments. Landlords of 

 reputable hostelries, mindful of the social gulf 

 that (in the opinion of the insides) existed between 

 the inside passengers of a stage-coach and those 

 off-scourings of the country who rode on the roof 

 or in the " basket," did not commonly allow those 

 belonging to that even lower stratum, the waggons, 

 to sleep in their houses. A supjier of cold boiled 

 beef and bread in the kitchen, followed by a 

 shake-down in the hay or straw of the stables, at 

 an inclusive price of sixpence or ninepence, was 

 their portion. Swift himself, that terriljle genius 

 of the eighteenth century, Avho knew the extremi- 

 ties of obscurity and fame, of penury and affluence, 

 was, in his early days, of this poor company. 

 When a young man, travelling from the house of 

 his patron. Sir William Temple, at Moor Park, 

 near Farnham, in Surrey, to see his mother at 

 Leicester, he rode in the waggon, and slept at " the 



