n the
carriage. For accidents were so frequent that it would have been
most perilous to mount the roof. The ordinary fare was about twopence
halfpenny a mile in summer, and somewhat more in winter. [148]

This mode of travelling, which by Englishmen of the present day would be
regarded as insufferably slow, seemed to our ancestors wonderfully and
indeed alarmingly rapid. In a work published a few months before the
death of Charles the Second, the flying coaches are extolled as far
superior to any similar vehicles ever known in the world. Their velocity
is the subject of special commendation, and is triumphantly contrasted
with the sluggish pace of the continental posts. But with boasts like
these was mingled the sound of complaint and invective. The interests of
large classes had been unfavourably affected by the establishment of the
new diligences; and, as usual, many persons were, from mere stupidity
and obstinacy, disposed to clamour against the innovation, simply
because it was an innovation. It was vehemently argued that this mode of
conveyance would be fatal to the breed of horses and to the noble art of
horsemanship; that the Thames, which had long been an important nursery
of seamen, would cease to be the chief thoroughfare from London up to
Windsor and down to Gravesend; that saddlers and spurriers would be
ruined by hundreds; that numerous inns, at which mounted travellers had
been in the habit of stopping, would be deserted, and would no longer
pay any rent; that the new carriages were too hot in summer and too cold
in winter; that the passengers were grievously annoyed by invalids and
crying children; that the coach sometimes reached the inn so late that
it was impossible to get supper, and sometimes started so early that
it was impossible to get breakfast. On these grounds it was gravely
recommended that no public coach should be permitted to have more than
four horses, to start oftener than once a week, or to go more than
thirty miles a day. It was hoped that, if this regulation were adopted,
all except the sick and the lame would return to the old mode of
travelling. Petitions embodying such opinions as these were presented to
the King in council from several companies of the City of London, from
several provincial towns, and from the justices of several counties. We
Smile at these things. It is not impossible that our descendants,
when they read the history of the opposition offered by cupidity and
preju