290 STAGE-COACH AND MAIL IN DAYS OF YORE 



There were those ingrates who, contemporary 

 with the Diligences, did not appreciate them very 

 highly. They valued speed more than safety. 

 " You should have called it the Sloth," said the 

 traveller at the Hawes Inn, somewhere ahout 

 1790, referring to the " Hawes Fly, or Queen's- 

 ferry Diligence," which then plied between Edin- 

 burgh and the shores of the Forth ; " why, it 

 moves like a fly through a glue-pot." 



It is now necessary to turn aside for aAvhile to 

 contemplate the final debasement of the Diligence, 

 which in 1835 became, in the hands of Mr. George 

 Shillibeer, something very like an omnibus. In 

 1829 he had introduced a line of jmblic vehicles 

 running from Paddington to the City, and had 

 himself named them " omnibuses " ; but in 1835 

 he appeared with a long-distance vehicle which he 

 put on the Brighton Hoad and named " Shillibeer's 

 Improved New Patent Diligence." By this, three 

 classes of accommodation were provided : the 

 " Coupe or Chariot," to convey three persons, at 

 £1 \s. each; behind it, in a separate comjoartment, 

 the "Omnibus," to hold eight, at 1(5^.; and the 

 " Exterior," as he somewliat grandly named the 

 roof, accommodating an indefinite number at 10s. 

 each. Shillibeer was a great advertiser, and gave 

 this, as well as his omnibuses, due publicity. He 

 was inordinately fond of advertisements cast in a 

 metrical form, and accordingly his tame poet was 

 made to grind out a set of halting verses which 

 fully describe the beauty and convenience of his 

 master's new enterprise : — 



