174 



EARLY MODES OF CONVEYANCE. 



PART] II. 



month. 1 The risk of break-downs in driving over the 

 execrable roads may be inferred from the circumstance 

 that every coach carried with it a box of carpenter's 

 tools, and the hatchets were occasionally used in lopping 

 off the branches of trees overhanging the road and ob- 

 structing the travellers' progress. 



No wonder, therefore, that a great deal of the travellii i <; 

 of the country continued to be performed on horseback", 

 this being by far the pleasantest as well as most expe- 

 ditious mode of journeying. Even Dr. Johnson rode 

 from Birmingham to Derby with his Tetty on the day 

 of their marriage, the Doctor taking the opportunity of 

 the journey to give his bride her first lesson in marital 

 discipline. At a later period James Watt rode from 

 Glasgow to London, when proceeding thither to learn 

 the art of mathematical instrument making. Nearly all 

 the commercial gentlemen rode, carrying their samples 

 and luggage in two bags at their saddle-bow, and hence 

 their appellation of Riders or Bagmen. For safety's sake, 

 these usually journeyed in company ; for the dangers of 

 travelling were by no means confined to the ruggedness 

 of the roads. The highways were infested by troops of 



1 Mr. Pennant has left us the follow- 

 ing account of his journey in the 

 Chester stage to London in 1739-40 : 

 "The first day," says he, "with 

 much labour, we got from Chester to 

 Whitchurch, twenty miles ; the second 

 day to the ' Welsh Harp ;' the third, 

 to Coventry ; the fourth, to North- 

 ampton ; the fifth, to Dunstable ; and, 

 as a wondrous effort, on the last, to 

 London, before the commencement of 

 night. The strain and labour of six 

 good horses, sometimes eight, drew us 

 through the sloughs of Mireden and 

 many other places. We were con- 

 stantly out two hours before day, and 

 as late at night, and in the depth of 

 winter proportionally later. The 

 single gentlemen, then a hardy race, 

 equipped in jack-boots and trowsers, 

 up to their middle, rode post through 

 thick and thin, and, guarded against 



the mire, defied the frequent stumble 

 and fall, arose and pursued their jour- 

 ney with alacrity ; while, in these 

 days, their enervated posterity sleep 

 away their rapid journeys in easy 

 chaises, fitted for the conveyance <>i 

 the soft inhabitants of Sybaris." 

 In 1710 a Manchester manufacturer, 

 taking his family up to London, hired 

 a coach for the whole way, which, in 

 the then state of the roads, must have 

 made it a journey of probably eight or 

 ten days. And, in 1742, the system 

 of travelling had so little improved 

 that a lady, wanting to come with 

 her niece from Worcester to Man- 

 chester, wrote to a friend in the latter 

 place to send her a hired coach, be- 

 cause the man knew the ra/'/, having 

 brought from thence a family some time 

 before." Aikin's ' Manchester.' 



