196 THE COACHING AGE. 



At one time it was fixed at threepence a mile for a 

 coach licensed to carry fifteen passengers, which would 

 cover four inside and eleven out ; another passenger, 

 making a total of sixteen, would have added another 

 halfpenny a mile to the duty. 



In various years, however, these duties were altered, 

 both as to the amount charged and the numbers 

 allowed to be carried, so that no definite calculation 

 of the expenditure under this head can be arrived at. 

 It, however, was sufficiently important to make it 

 worth the coach-proprietor's while to reduce it to the 

 lowest amount practicable, and in order to accom- 

 plish this it was usual when the winter season was 

 coming on to lessen the number for which the 

 license was taken out at the Stamp Office, so that 

 during the winter months a coach might only be 

 licensed to carry eight out and four inside ; but when 

 the summer came round again and trade was found 

 to be increasing, the license was altered at the Stamp 

 Office for the increased number, and payment of the 

 additional duty consequent upon it. This duty, 

 although considerable, was looked upon by the coach- 

 proprietors in the light of a protection, prevent- 

 ing persons from recklessly starting coaches with- 

 out the means of keeping them on the road, but 

 seriously interfering with those established, and pro- 

 bably entailing a considerable reduction in their fares 



