POSTING IN THE OLDEN TIME 25 



were immediately alive to the occasion. As one 

 pair of horses was always kept ready harnessed and 

 saddled in the stable throughout the day, until 

 racking-up and feeding time at night, ready for 

 every emergency, no time was lost, the post-boy 

 being already booted and spurred, the driver almost 

 invariably riding, or, to use the prevalent term, 

 ' bumped the saddle.' The traveller, who was 

 probably coming from or going to the metropolis, 

 gave out the place he was bound for, asked the 

 number of miles, say to Buckingham or Bicester 

 (seventeen miles), and as the charge, including duty, 

 for a pair of horses was is. 6d. a mile, the amount 

 would be i/. 5^. 6d., which was generally paid before 

 starting. Sixpence was given to the ostler, and 3^'. 

 per mile for the post-boy ; and as there were three 

 turnpike gates on the road, the cost at gd. each was 

 2s. 3^'., with I IS. for an occasional bait or stoppage, 

 it brought the amount as near as possible to 2^^. 

 per mile. The pace, including stoppage, changing 

 horses, &c., was about eight to nine miles per hour. 

 Thus, if the travellers left London, si.xty miles 

 distant, at ten o'clock in the morning, with an hour for 

 luncheon en route, by six o'clock they were ready for 

 dinner : they rarely travelled beyond that hour, and 

 then made themselves comfortable for the night. It 

 will therefore be observed what an expensive and 

 difficult thing it became to move an establishment, 

 with children and servants, about the country ; and 

 that when a family left their house in the early spring 

 for the London season, there was but little induce- 



