32 HIGHWAYS AND HORSES. 



instructive, as it gives us an insight into the condition 

 of pubHc conveyances and roads in the Southern 

 States of America ; and it is evident that roads as 

 bad as this must have very strongly resembled 

 the old English roads whose history I intend tracing 

 up to the present day. The thing most re- 

 markable about this Virginian road is, that under 

 the circumstances the negro coachman should have 

 driven his coach ten miles in two hours and 

 a half; on such a road as Dickens has described 

 such speed is marvellous. Dickens gives in his 

 " American Notes " another description of a coach 

 ride, but under improved circumstances. He says : 



" We remained and rested one day at Cincinnati, 

 and then resumed our journey to Sandusky ; our 

 place of destination was in the first instance at 

 Columbus. It is distant about a hundred and twenty 

 miles from Cincinnati, but there is a macadamised 

 road (rare blessing) the whole way, and the rate of 

 travelling upon it is six miles an hour. 



"We start at eight o'clock in the morning in a 

 great coach, whose huge red cheeks are so ruddy 

 and plethoric that it appears to be troubled with 

 a tendency of blood to the head ; dropsical it certainly 

 is, for it holds a dozen passengers inside, but wonderful 

 to add, it is very clean and bright, being nearly new, 

 and rattles gaily through the streets of Cincinnati. 



" Our way lies through a beautiful country richly 

 cultivated, and luxuriant in the promise of an abundant 

 harvest, and, save for certain differences, one might be 

 travellinor in Kent. 



" We often stop to water the horses at a roadside 

 inn, which is always dull and silent. The coachman 



