134 STAGE-COACH AND MAIL IN DAYS OF YORE 



' George Inn,' in the Borough, Southwark, every 

 Wednesday in the afternoon, and sets out for 

 Lewes every Thursday morning by eight o'clock, 

 and brings Goods and Passengers to Lewes, 

 fetching, Chayley, Newick, and all places 

 adjacent at reasonable rates. Performed {If God 

 permit) by Mary Smith." 



No mention yet, it will be observed, of 

 Brighton, that little fisher-village of Brighthelm- 

 stone which presently was to rival fashionable Bath. 

 The waggon went no farther than Lewes ; and 

 the first jmblic conveyance to Brighton appears to 

 have been the " Brighthelmstone Stage" of May 

 1756, running as an extension of the "London 

 and Lewes One-Day Stage." 



Speed was by no means sought upon these old 

 waggon-journeys. Quite apart from their usual 

 inability to go, under the most favourable circum- 

 stances, at more than about four miles an hour, 

 they were exempt from passenger-duty, on all 

 travellers carried, only when the rate of progres- 

 sion did not exceed that speed. 



Thus, although the Brighton waggon owned by 

 Tubb and Davis in 1770 had a rival conveyance 

 put on the road in 1776 by Lashmar & Co., both 

 continued at the old jmce. Both went by way of 

 East Grinstead and Lewes, and took three days to 

 perform the fifty-eight miles, Lashmar's waggon 

 leaving the " King's Head," Southwark, every 

 Tuesday at 3 a.m., and arriving at the " King's 

 Head," Brighton, on Thursday afternoons. Goods 



