CHAP. IV, 



LONDON IN 1785. 



135 



had only a few houses on the north side. " I remember it," 

 says Pennant, " a deep hollow road and full of sloughs, 

 with here and there a ragged house, the lurking-place of 

 cut-throats ; insomuch that I was never taken that way 

 by night, in my hackney-coach, to a worthy uncle's who 

 gave me lodgings at his house in George Street, but I 

 went in dread the whole way." Paddington was " in 

 the country," and the communication with it was kept 

 up by means of a daily stage a lumbering vehicle, 

 driven by its proprietor which was heavily dragged 

 into the city in the morning, down Gray's Inn Lane, 

 with a rest at the Blue Posts, Holborn Bars, to give 

 passengers an opportunity of doing their shopping. The 

 morning journey was performed in two hours and a half, 

 " quick time," and the return journey in the evening in 

 about three hours. 



Heavy coaches still lumbered along the country roads 

 at little more than four miles an hour. A new state of 

 things had, however, been recently inaugurated by the 

 starting of the first mail-coach on Palmer's plan, which 

 began running between London and Bristol on the 

 24th of August, 1784, and the system was shortly ex- 

 tended to other places. Numerous Acts were passed by 

 Parliament authorising the formation of turnpike-roads 

 and the erection of bridges. 1 The general commerce 

 of the country was also making progress. The appli- 

 cation of recent inventions in manufacturing industry 

 gave a stimulus to the general improvement, and this 

 was further helped by a succession of favourable harvests. 

 The India Bill had just been renewed by Pitt, and trade 

 with India was brisk. Besides, a commercial treaty with 

 France was on foot, from which great things were ex- 



1 In the interval between 1784 and 

 1792, not fewer than 302 Acts were 

 passed authorising the construction of 

 new roads and bridges, 64 autho- 

 rising the formation of canals and 

 harbours, and still more numerous 



Acts for carrying out measures of 

 drainage, enclosure, paving, and other 

 local improvements a sufficient indi- 

 cation of the industrial activity of the 

 nation at the time. 



