OLD ROUTES 3 



5.30 A.M.. and arrived at Exeter at 10.30 p.m. 

 Twenty minutes allowed for breakfast at Bagsliot, 

 and thirty minutes for dinner at Deptford Inn. The 

 ' Telegraph,' be it said, was put on the road as a 

 rival to the ' Quicksilver ' Devonport mail, which, 

 leaving Piccadilly at 8 p.m., arrived at Exeter at 

 12.34 next day; time, sixteen hours, thirty-four 

 minutes. Going on to Devonport, it arrived at that 

 place at 5.14 p.m., or twenty-one hours, fourteen 

 minutes from London. There were no fewer than 

 twenty-three changes in the 216 miles. 



II 



But those travellers who, in the early days of 

 coaching, a century and a half ago, desired the safest, 

 speediest, and most comfortable journey to Exeter, 

 went by a very much longer route than any of those 

 already named. They went, in fact, by the Bath 

 Road and thence throug-li Somerset. The Exeter 



O 



Road beyond Basingstoke was at that period a miser- 

 able waggon-track, without a single turnpike ; while 

 the road to Bath had, under the management of 

 numerous turnpike-trusts, already become a com- 

 paratively fine highway. The Somersetshire squires 

 were also bestirring themselves to improve their 

 roads, despite the strenuous opposition encountered 

 from the peasantry and others on the score of their 

 rights being invaded, and the anticipated ruin of 

 local trade. 



