CHAP. II. KAIILY MODES OF CONVEYANCE. 171 



1 >\ coacli was calculated to destroy the breed of horses, 

 and make men careless of good horsemanship, that it 

 hindered the training of watermen and seamen, and inter- 

 fered with the puhlic resources. The reasons given are 

 curious. It was said that those who were accustomed 

 to travel in coaches became weary and listless when 

 they rode a few miles, and were unwilling to get on 

 horse! >ack "not able to endure frost, snow, or rain, or 

 to lodge in the fields ;" that to save their clothes and 

 keep themselves clean and dry, people rode in coaches, 

 and thus contracted an idle habit of body ; that this was 

 ruinous to trade, for that " most gentlemen, before they 

 travelled in coaches, used to ride with swords, belts, 

 pistols, holsters, portmanteaus, and hat-cases, which, in 

 these coaches, they have little or no occasion for : for, 

 when they rode on horseback, they rode in one suit and 

 carried another to wear when they came to their journey's 

 end, or lay by the way; but in coaches a silk suit and 

 an Indian gown, with a sash, silk stockings, and beaver- 

 hats, men ride in, and carry no other with them, because 

 they escape the wet and dirt, which on horseback they 

 cannot avoid ; whereas, in two or three journeys on 

 horseback, these clothes and hats were wont to be spoiled ; 

 which done, they were forced to have new very often, 

 and that increased the consumption of the manufactures 

 and the employment of the manufacturers; which tra- 

 velling in coaches doth no way do." The writer of the 

 same protest against coaches gives some idea of the 

 extent of travelling by them in those days ; for to show 

 the iripmtic nature of the evil he is contending against, 

 IM- avers that between London and the three principal 

 towns of York, Chester, and Exeter, not fewer than 

 eighteen persons, making the journey in five days, travel 

 by them weekly (the coaches running thrice in the week), 

 and a like number back ; " which come, in the whole, to 

 e i u 1 1 teen hundred and seventy-two in the year." Anotl i e r 

 U'reat nuisance, the \vrit<T alleged, which flowed from 



