CHAP. II. KAKLY MODES OF CONVEYANCE 173 



mended, and then to travel all night to make good their 

 stage ? Is it for a man's pleasure, or advantageous to 

 liis health and business, to travel with a mixed company 

 that he knows not how to converse with ; to be affronted 

 by the rudeness of a surly, dogged, cursing, ill-natured 

 coachman ; necessitated to lodge or bait at the worst inn 

 on the road, where there is no accommodation fit for 

 gentlemen ; and this merely because the owners of the 

 inns and the coachmen are agreed together to cheat the 

 guests ? " Hence the writer loudly calls for the suppres- 

 sion of stage-coaches forthwith as a great nuisance and 

 crying evil. 



Travelling by coach was in early times a very delibe- 

 rate affair. Time was of less consequence than safety, 

 and coaches were advertised to start " God willing," and 

 " about " such and such an hour " as shall seem good " 

 to the majority of the passengers. The difference of a 

 day in the journey from London to York was a small 

 matter, and Thoresby was even accustomed to leave the 

 coach and go in search of fossil shells in the fields on 

 either side the road while making the journey between 

 the two places. The long coach " put up " at sun-down, 

 and " slept on the road." Whether the coach was to 

 proceed or stop short at some favourite inn was de- 

 termined by the vote of the passengers, who usually 

 appointed a chairman at the beginning of the journey. 

 In 1700 York was a week distant from London, and 

 Tunbridge Wells, now reached in an hour, was two days. 

 Salisbury and Oxford were also two days' journeys, and 

 Kxrter five. The Fly coach from London to Exeter slept 

 at the latter place the fifth night from town ; the coach 

 proceeded next morning to Axminster, where it break- 

 fasted, and there a woman barber "shaved the coach." * 

 Between London and Edinburgh, as late as 1763, a fort- 

 night was consumed, the coach only starting once a 



Roberta's * Social History of the Southern Counties,' p. 494. 



