FARMING TURNPIKES. 85 



value of the tolls and duties. The tolls were very 

 high, and the turnpikes were very numerous ; coaching 

 and posting constituted the principal source of revenue 

 to the turnpike trustees. On the road between London 

 and St. Albans, a distance of only twenty-one miles, 

 there were five gates, on passing through which coaches 

 had to pay toll. It is said that on the Brighton road 

 there was one gate at which the tolls amounted to 

 ^2400 a year, and Mr. Levy, the great turnpike 

 farmer, estimated that stage-coaches alone paid the 

 toll-takers at this gate ^1600 per annum. The 

 Birmingham and London coach, running every day in 

 the year, is said to have paid ^1428 in turnpike tolls. 



Some of the coaches in the old days did not carry 

 guards ; this always appears to me a very dangerous 

 custom, as supposing there were no passengers, and 

 any accident occurred, the coachman, not being able to 

 leave his seat, must have been powerless to avert such 

 disaster. 



The coaches that travelled without guards were 

 day- coaches, the principal of which were the Dover, 

 Southampton, Bristol, Weymouth, Yarmouth, and 

 Norwich. Apart from the objections I have men- 

 tioned to not carrying a guard, it is difficult to 

 understand who kept the time, looked after the 

 passengers' luggage, skidded the wheel when descend- 

 ing hills, and did the thousand and one things that 

 were requisite to the comfort and convenience of the 

 passengers. Some of the coaches which did carry 

 guards, were the Monmouth, Exeter, Hereford, 

 Taunton, Shrewsbury, and Manchester. 



When there was no guard, the coachman had to do 

 everything himself, and hard work he must have had 

 to fulfil all his multitudinous duties. The mail guards 



