CONCLUSION. 467 



prietors ; coacli-proprietors ; mails ; coaches ; post- 

 chaises; post-boys; coachmen; guards; coach- 

 porters ; coach-offices ; coaching-stables down the 

 roads ; turnpikes, and of course with them the 

 quiet and inoffensive dwellers in small roadside 

 cottages, known as pike-keepers, both male and 

 female. All were swept away by the irresistible 

 march of the railways. Few, except men like 

 Chaplin and Home, escaped being carried down, and 

 it was as one has read in an old combination of 

 English and dog-Latin, the author of which I 

 don't know : ' Omnes drownderunt swim away qui 

 non potuerunt.' Almost aU that remains now of 

 ' the road ' is its memory. 



All these changes have taken place in little over 

 forty years, and supposing for a moment that railway- 

 travelling had never been effected, it appears difficult 

 to imagine how we could have got about. We are 

 now accustomed to take a journey of a hundred 

 miles in about three hours, in an enclosed carriage 

 protected against all weather, for the small sum of 

 8s. 4d. ; whereas in the days of ' the road ' it took 

 eleven or twelve hours or more,' at an expense of 

 nearly a pound for the fare only, on the outside of 

 a coach. 



Taking into consideration the people who travel 

 on business only, much perhaps might be transacted 



