34 THE EXETER ROAD 



lightning ' Telegraph ' to Exeter ; ])iit what on 

 earth the Londoner of modest means who desired 

 to travel to Putney or to Brentford would in 

 those pre-omnibus times have done without those 

 stages it is impossible to conceive. We, in these 

 days, might just as well find romance in the 

 majesty of the beautiful Great Western Express 

 locomotives that speed between Paddington and 

 Penzance, and then turn to the omnibuses that 

 run to Hammersmith, and say, ' How we hate the 

 'buses ! ' 



All these suburban stages started from public- 

 houses. There w^ere quite a number which went to 

 Brentford and on to Hounslow, and they set out from 

 such forgotten houses as the ' New Inn,' Old Bailey ; 

 the ' Goose and Gridiron,' St. Paul's Churchyard ; the 

 ' Old Bell,' Holborn ; the ' Gloucester Coffee House,' 

 Piccadilly ; the ' White Hart,' ' Eed Lion,' and 

 ' Spotted Dog,' Strand ; and the ' Bolt-in-Tun,' Fleet 

 Street. It is to be feared that those stages were not 

 ' Swiftsures,' ' Hirondelles,' or 'Lightnings.' Nor, 

 indeed, were ' popular prices ' known in those days. 

 Concessions had been made in this direction, it is true, 

 some seven years before, wdien the man with the 

 extraordinary name — Mr. Shillibeer — introduced the 

 first omnibus, which ran between the ' Yorkshire 

 Stingo,' in the New Road, Marylebone, and the City ; 

 and the very name ' omnibus ' was originally intended 

 as a kind of finger-post to point out the intended 

 popularity of the new conveyance, but as the fare to 

 the City was one shilling, it may readily be supposed 

 that Bill Mortarmixer, Tom Tenon, and the whole of 



