294 STAGE-COACH AND MAIL IN DAYS OF YORE 



side sat a man with a loaded blunderbuss, and 

 another upon the roof." 



The felons, " behind the coach," Avould ride 

 in the liasket, which was without springs. Their 

 chains would necessarily rattle, and considering 

 the discomfort of ten manacled men, jammed 

 together, without seats, and jolted over bad roads, 

 it is not surprising they "blasphemed." 



Macready travelled in 1811 by the Liverpool 

 stage, from Birmingham to London. He says : — 



" I got into the coacb ; its odours were many, 

 various, and unpleasantly mingled, and the 

 passengers, a half-drunken sailor and an old 

 Avoman, did not impress me Avitli the prospect of 

 a very pleasant journey. The pace at which 

 the vehicle proceeded made me doubt Avhether it 

 would ever reach London, and its creakings and 

 joltings seemed to augur a certain overturn." 

 This objectionable conveyance took five hours to 

 accomplish the eighteen miles between Birmingham 

 and Coventry, and only reached London at five 

 o'clock the next evening. 



But there is no subject upon which it is 

 more rash to generalise than that of coaching 

 history. One road might be thirty or forty 

 years in advance of another, and Diligences and 

 Post Coaches mean things very different in one 

 part of the country from conveyances similarly 

 named, but of different construction and capacity, 

 running in other districts. In 1782, for example, 

 there was a self-styled " Post Coach " running 

 between London, Maidenhead, and Mario w, Avhich 



