COACH PROPRIETORS _ 105 



been perfectly impossible in the days when the 

 roads were so bad that additional strength had to be 

 resorted to in order to extricate vehicles which had 

 sunk up to the axles in deep ruts and quagmires ; but 

 the pace being increased, a better class of horse was 

 necessarily employed, and the greater the speed the 

 greater the wear and tear of their stock. 



With the increased pace travellers began to be 

 impatient of long and unnecessary delays on the 

 road and constant stoppages at road-side inns, chiefly, 

 if not entirely, for the purpose of getting something 

 to drink ; because at this inn some speciality in the 

 way of fluid was to be obtained, and at that the land- 

 lord, or it might be the landlady, was a particular 

 friend of the coachman, so it would not do to 

 pass by the house every day without stopping. It 

 soon became manifest to the travellers that it 

 was of no use to increase the pace of the coach if 

 so much time was to be wasted in needless stop- 

 pages, or an unreasonable time allowed where they 

 were necessary for the purpose of changing or taking 

 meals on long journeys ; thus the number of the 

 stoppages being decreased, the innkeepers at whose 

 houses the changes took place were obliged to 

 send on the coaches, as quickly as possible, without 

 time being allowed for taking refreshment or doing 

 anything for the good of the house ; so some part 



