The many boons conferred by Mr. John Palmer upon his generation faded
before the advance of the railways; but he has deserved well of
posterity, if only for that he altered the coach team from three horses
to four. Until that enterprising man undertook to demonstrate that
the coach could carry letters more rapidly and safely than could the
post-boy, our ancestors had been content with the unicorn team; but
after Palmer had astonished the world by making the journey from Bath
to London, in 1784, at the rate of nearly seven miles an hour, the team
of four horses gradually but steadily supplanted that of three in the
stages on almost every road in the country.
[Illustration:
_The Stage Coach:
Old Times