274 HIGHWAYS AND HORSES. 



a public and unconditional promise of peaceable con- 

 duct, ordered her release ; and the victim of intoxi- 

 cation and vituperative passion staggered homeward." 



But to return to matters more nearly connected 

 with our subject, the condition of England a hundred 

 years ago. The stage-coaches then used to be adver- 

 tised to start from York, God willing, on a certain 

 day in the year of our Lord 1739, and these same 

 coaches would arrive, " Providence remaining willing," 

 in London some eight or ten days later. A writer 

 calls our attention to this fact, and says : 



" This may serve to give some notion of the 

 uncertainty of communication ; and this uncertainty 

 was an element of safety to the highwayman, who, 

 in this age of fast coaches and railroads, exists no more. 

 The highwayman who took a purse on the road had 

 only to ride across the country, and he was, com- 

 paratively speaking, as safe from pursuit or recognition 

 as if, at this time, he betook himself to some distant 

 land. The merchant, the lawyer, the farmer, the 

 grazier, the commercial traveller knew not the safety 

 of banks, the convenience of paper currency, or the 

 accommodation of a ready and rapid transmission of 

 valuables by post. The grazier who drove up his 

 live stock from the North, returned, by easy stages 

 on horseback, in or out of company, as he might 

 happen to be prudent or incautious, bold or cowardly, 

 with the proceeds of his speculation in ' bright gold.' 

 The farmer took his way to market with leathern or 

 canvas bag well or scantily furnished, as his worldly 

 means might permit. The commercial traveller pro- 

 ceeded on his rounds, with goods of the more valuable 

 and lighter descriptions in bulk, on pack-horses, or by 

 the broad- wheeled waggon. In the days of Fielding 



