[Illustration]
It is generally assumed that fast coaching only came into existence
after the macadamisation of the roads; but this is not quite the case.
Under favourable conditions the speed attained in pre-Macadam days
was nearly as great as it became later. The _Sporting Magazine_ of
June 1807 says: 'Lately one of the stage coaches on the North road ran
from London to Stamford, a distance of 90 miles, in 9 hours 4 minutes.
The passengers, four in number, breakfasted and dined on the road, so
it must have run at the rate of 12 miles an hour all the time it was
travelling.'
The 'old heavies' discarded under Palmer's drastic rule worked out
their lives as ordinary stage coaches, and some of these remained on
the road until well on in the nineteenth century.