dge, horsed the
coaches from Cambridge to Royston, and the other distance from Royston
to London was horsed by London men.

From the foregoing list the reader will see that the old coaching days
meant no small amount of life and animation, and, for certain trades,
money and business, to towns situated as Royston was.

For the palmy days of stage-coaching we must travel a little beyond the
era of the Georges, even of the last of them; for at the time when the
railway came the coaching traffic of this country had reached a pitch
of perfection which was unknown at any previous period in its history,
and for smartness and efficiency and for the vast extent of its
operations it was an institution of which the English people had every
reason to be proud.

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A parliamentary return for 1836 shows the highest speed attained by
mail coaches in England to have been 10 5/8 miles per hour, in Scotland
10 1/2, and in Ireland 9 1/8. That there were still some terribly bad
roads for some of the cross-country mail coaches is shown by the fact
that the slowest speed was 6 miles in England, 7 in Scotland, and 6 7/8
in Ireland.

Royston saw some of the smartest coach-driving on the road. Six or
seven coaches and three mails passed through the town up and down every
day. Posting business was conducted with great spirit by the two rival
inns--the young Bull and the older Red Lion, each having half a score
of post horses in their stables, and one pair always standing harnessed
ready to take "first turn out." These demands upon the principal inns
made it impossible for the coach-horses to be stabled there and they
occupied stables at various places in the town, but were brought up
generally at the Red Lion or the Bull for the changes.

One of the chief characteristics of the old coaching days was the close
association of coaches and coachmen with, and keen interest taken in
them by, the inhabitants of the towns through which the principal coach
routes passed. Royston had its full share of such associations, the
institution coloured all our local life, from the pauper or cripple who
begged of the coach passengers, to the local gentry who were expecting
their newspaper. There was thus always something exhilarating and
stirring about the arrival of the stage coach. It had within it so
many possibilities. It might contain some great "Parliament man,"
runaway lovers, or stealers of bank notes, and it always brought some
news.