55 



the coaches were suppressed. In 1731 

 Dean Swift wrote to his friend, Mr. Gay, 

 rebuking him for his preference for travelHng 

 by coach ; the letter clearly indicates that it 

 was then still usual for country oentlemen of 

 active habit to ride rather than use the stage 

 coach. 



There was sound reason for the man to 

 whom time was a consideration to prefer the 

 saddle to the coach. The earliest roads for 

 wheel traffic very commonly ran along the 

 dry beds of streams and old water courses ; 

 rough tracks in dry weather and veritable 

 quagmires in wet seasons. They also fol- 

 lowed the rough bridle paths which ran over 

 the hills, where firm ground had led the 

 traveller on horseback and the chapman 

 or pedlar, with his train of pack-horses to 

 select their route. 



The general adoption of Macadam's sys- 

 tem of road making in 1819, together with 

 Telford's engineering feats, resulting in hard, 

 smooth highways free from steep gradients, 

 introduced the " golden age " of fast coach- 

 ing, which did much to give journeying in 

 the saddle its final blow. And it will be 

 right to say that during the period 1650- 

 1820, the breeding of saddle-horses was by 

 slow degrees given up in favour of the pro- 



