FAST COACHES. 79 



or some more horses ; we don't see why we should 

 move," Such is the disposition of either ignorant or 

 unfeehng persons who make use of pubHc conveyances ; 

 and, in my opinion, it should be left to the discretion of 

 a driver or conductor, in such a case, to return the 

 passengers their fares, rather than urge the horses to 

 perform what is beyond their powers. 



It appears that the fastest coaches performing long 

 distances, were not put upon the road until a few years 

 before the decline of coaching ; these were mostly 

 stage-coaches, which were as fast as the mails, but 

 for punctuality the mails surpassed them ; the 

 Shrewsbury stage-coach, "The Wonder," was one of 

 the fastest coaches of the day.* Mr. Harris says it 

 took eleven hours and four minutes from London, 

 whilst the mail took eleven hours and eight minutes ; 

 yet in the time-bill it is mentioned as taking ten 

 hours one minute. When the day-coaches pulled 

 up at an inn to change horses, there were always 

 plenty of men to lend a hand in putting the fresh 

 team together, but with a night-coach the case was 

 different ; frequently the coachman, the guard, and 

 the horsekeeper had to do all the work themselves, 

 and when there was no guard then the coachman 

 and horsekeeper had to do it. A very fast coach out 

 of London was the Holyhead, but the fastest in the 

 United Kingdom, excepting the " Beaufort Hunt " to 

 Bath.t was that which ran from Preston to Liverpool ; 

 this coach accomplished ten miles five furlongs per 

 hour, the entire distance being only thirty miles. A 

 writer on the subject says that the speed of mail- 

 coaches averaged eight miles seven furlongs an hour. 

 In the year 1836, the last year of William the 

 * See page 73. + See page 73. 



