ACROSS THE NUMBER 65 



Hence, those who would reach Hull by coach dkect 

 had to face the passage of the Humber, either (as in 

 very early years) by sailing hoy, or, after 1816, by 

 steamer to Hessle, on the northern bank, or direct to 

 Hull itself. To be exact, it is five miles one furlong 

 five chains to the eastward from Barton Pier to the 

 centre of the entrance of the Humber dock. 



The ferry at Barton-on-Humber had a real import- 

 ance of its own, apart even from the Hull trade. It 

 was in the line of direct road from London to Beverley 

 Minster, Driffield, Scarborough, Whitby, and Flam- 

 borough Head ; and Hull was reached that way in 

 174 miles from Hicks's Hall. But, because of the 

 trying passage of the Humber, another route, through 

 York, was made far greater use of, even though 

 it increased the length of the journey to 236|- 

 miles. 



So the Waterside Inn at Barton became an im- 

 portant place much earlier than what are now under- 

 stood as mail-coaching times, but while stage-coach 

 passengers crossed by the Barton ferry, the Hull 

 mails took the York route. They do so, almost, to 

 this date, inasmuch as the night mail comes up to 

 Milford Junction, not far from York, on its way to 

 Normanton, by the North-E astern Bail way, and it is 

 only the day and some other mails which avoid that 

 great angle, and run round the easier corner formed 

 by the crossing of the river Ouse at Selby by the 

 Great Northern Railway. 



A stage-coach ran from London through Lincoln 



