1 88 THE EXETER ROAD 



tive Oil tlie ,-5ul)ject of travelling at that time. It gives 

 in one phrase a glimpse of the waiting-room which 

 was a feature of all-coaching inns, and in another 

 shows that it was possible to bargain for fares. Only 

 in this instance the Ijargain was not struck. 



He had come at half-past one in the morning into 

 Salisbury by a cross-country coach, and w^aiting for 

 the arrival of the mail to Exeter, ' sat quietly by the 

 fire in the common dirty room appropriated to coach 

 passengers. ' 



For twenty minutes, he says, he had for companion 

 a man who had just disengaged himself from an irri- 

 table rencontre with the coachman of the mail. He 

 had waited from two o'clock in the afternoon to go 

 on to Bristol, but when the time arrived he quarrelled 

 with the coachman about whether he should pay 

 nine shillings or twelve, the passenger insisting upon 

 nine, the whip three shillings more ; upon which the 

 traveller decided not to go, returned to the coach- 

 room, and ordered his bed. Sir William asked him if 

 it really was worth while to lose the time and to pay 

 for a bed at the inn over this unsuccessful nesfotiation, 

 and to this the man replied that it was not. ' In 

 fact,' said he, ' w^e have both been taken in. The 

 coachman thought I would pay, and I thought he 

 would take my ofler.' 



XXIX 



It is a nine-miles journey, due north from Salis- 

 bury to Stonehenge, l)ut although it would, under 



