THE OLD COACHING ROADS. 59 



taken place as in travelling during the last sixty 

 or seventy years, both by land and water. Then 

 our mails used to be conveyed abroad in sailing 

 vessels, taking months to perform their voyages, with 

 the uncertainties attendant upon wind and weather ; 

 now they are conveyed regularly in as many weeks 

 by splendid steamers running to all countries in the 

 world ; and a person having a month's holiday thinks 

 nothing of going to America, getting across from 

 Liverpool to New York in seven days — about the 

 same time it would have taken to go to the North of 

 Scotland and back, travelling day and night con- 

 tinuously by mails or coaches. 



Coming nearer home, and descending to the humble 

 transit from London to Gravesend of those desirous 

 of ' spending a happy day ' at Eosherville Gardens, 

 the only means of arriving at that Elysium was 

 either by coach along the road, occupying nearly 

 three hours, or by one of the rival companies' 

 steamers, which in those days were distinguished as 

 the Star and Diamond, the funnels of the vessels 

 being painted in black and white, so as clearly 

 to denote to which company they belonged. They 

 were wooden boats, and very different from the 

 fast-cutting iron vessels now employed in the same 

 service. The Gravesend coaches were not very 

 numerous, especially if you omit the long ones 



