2o6 STAGE-COACH AND MAIL IN DAYS OF YORE 



of persons resorting to them, tlie duty on post- 

 horses had not grown at its accustomed rate. The 

 remedy ready to hand was a Stamp Office duty on 

 stage-coaches, which was accordingly introduced 

 in 1776, and four-wheeled coaches paid £5 per 

 annum. The Eevenue " vampires," as the coach- 

 proprietors called them, turned again to this 

 new source of income, and in 1783 levied a duty 

 of a halfpenny a mile run hy every stage-coach. 

 Further measures Avere introduced two years later, 

 when the duties Avere revised, and four-wheeled 

 and two-wheeled coaches alike paid a five-shilling 

 annual license, and a duty of a penny a mile. 

 Erom this express inclusion of two-wheeled coaches, 

 it Avould seem that some vehicles of that nature 

 had heen introduced to evade the previous duty ; 

 but coaching history is silent on the subject. The 

 duty of a penny a mile Avas to be paid monthly, 

 and seven days' notice to be given of any coach 

 being discontinued. 



So far the legislature had only taken notice of 

 coaches AAdien ucav sources of revenue Avere being 

 sought ; but an eye AA^as already upon their doings, 

 an eye that had noted the increasing accidents, due 

 to overloading, reckless driving, and a variety of 

 other causes. It Avas not an official eye that thus 

 ranged over the roads of the kingdom and marked 

 the broken limbs and contusions of the lieges, 

 acquired by falling from the roofs of coaches, by 

 collisions and upsets : it AA^as the stern gaze, indeed, 

 of one Eichard Gamon, a private memberof Parlia- 

 ment, who in 1788, in the face of much opposition 



