I suppose that the history of travelling in this country, from the
Creation to the present time, may be divided into four periods--those
of no coaches, slow coaches, fast coaches, railways. Whether balloons,
or rockets, or some new mode which as yet has no name, because it has
no existence, may come next, I cannot tell, and it is hardly worth
while to think about it; for, no doubt, it will be something quite
inconceivable.
The third, or fast-coach period was brief, though brilliant. I doubt
whether fifty years have elapsed since the newest news in the world of
locomotive fashion was, that--to the utter confusion and defacement of
the "Sick, Lame, and Lazy," a sober vehicle so called from the nature
of its cargo, which was nightly disbanded into comfortable beds at
Newbury--a new post-coach had been set up which performed the journey
to Bath in a single day. Perhaps the day extended from about five
o'clock in the morning to midnight, but still the coach was, as it
called itself, a "_Day_-coach," for it travelled all day; and if it
did somewhat "add the night unto the day, and so make up the measure,"
the passengers had all the more for their money, and were incomparably
better off as to time than they had ever been before. But after this
many years elapsed before "old Quicksilver" made good its ten miles
an hour in one unbroken trot to Exeter, and was rivalled by "young
Quicksilver" on the road to Bristol, and beaten by the light-winged
Hirondelle, that flew from Liverpool to Cheltenham, and troops of
others, each faster than the foregoing, each trumpeting its own fame
on its own improved bugle, and beating time (all to nothing) with
sixteen hoofs of invisible swiftness. How they would have stared if
a parliamentary train had passed them, especially if they could have
heard its inmates grumbling over their slow progress, and declaring
that it would be almost quicker to get out and walk whenever their
jealousy was roused by the sudden flash of an express.
Certainly I was among those who rejoiced in the increased expedition
of the fast-coach period; not because I loved, but because I hated,
travelling, and was glad to have periods of misery abridged. I used to
listen with delight to the stories of my seniors, and to marvel that
in so short a space of time so great an improvement had been made. One
friend told me that in earlier life he had travelled from Gloucester
to Hereford in a coach, which performed the journey of about thirty
miles between the hours of five in the morning and seven in the
evening. I took it for granted that they stopped on the road to dine,
and spent a long afternoon in smoking, {34} napping, or playing at
bowls. But he would not acknowledge anything of the kind, and the
impression on his mind was that they kept going (such going as it
was), except during the time necessarily expended in baiting the
horses, who, I think, were not changed--unless indeed it were from bad
to worse by fatigue. Another friend, a physician at Sheffield, told me
that one of the first times (perhaps he may have said, the first) that
a coach started for London, he was a passenger. Without setting out
unreasonably early in the morning, or travelling late at night they
made such progress, that the first night they lay at Nottingham, and
the second at Market Harborough. The third morning they were up early,
and off at five o'clock; and by a long pull and a strong pull through
a long day, they were in time to hear Bow Church clock strike eleven
or twelve (I forget which) as they passed through Cheapside. In fact
such things have always seemed to me to be worth noting, for you never
can tell to what extent, or even in what direction, they may throw
some little ray of light on an obscure point of history. On this
principle I thought it worth while to copy an original bill which
lately fell into my hands. Many such have been reprinted, but I am
not aware that this one has; and as what is wanted is a series, every
little may help. It is as follows:--
"YORK Four Dayes
"Stage-Coach
"Begins on Monday the 18 of March 1678.
"All that are desirous to pass from London to York, or return from
York to London or any other Place on that Road; Let them Repair to
the Black Swan in Holborn in London and the Black Swan in Cony-Street
in York.
"At both which places they may be received in a Stage-Coach every
Monday, Wednesday and Friday, which performs the whole journey in
Four days (if God permit) and sets forth by Six in the Morning.
"And returns from York to Doncaster in a Forenoon, to Newark in a day
and a half, to Stamford in Two days, and from Stamford to London in
Two days more.
/ Henry Moulen
"Performed by < Margaret Gardner
\ Francis Gardner."
But I cannot deny that, while I have listened to, and rejoiced in,
these stories, I have had some doubt whether full justice has been
done to the other side of the question. I have always felt as if I had
a sort of guilty knowledge of one contradictory fact, which I learned
between twenty and thirty years ago, and which no one whom I have yet
met with has been able to explain. For this reason I am desirous to
lay it before you and your readers.
Just one hundred years ago--that is to say, on Sunday, the 10th of
August, 1749--two German travellers landed at Harwich. The principal
one was Stephen Schultz, who travelled for twenty years through
various parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, in the service of the
Callenberg Institution at Halle, of which he was afterwards Director,
being at the same time Pastor of St. Ulrich's Church in that city,
where his picture is (or was about twenty years ago) to be seen
affixed to the great pillar next the organ. It represents him as an
elderly divine in a black cap, and with a grave and prediger-like
aspect; but there is another likeness of him--an engraved print--in
which he looks more like a Turk than a Christian. He is dressed in a
shawl turban, brickdust-red mantle, and the rest of the costume which
he adopted in his Eastern travels. Our business, however, is with his
English adventures, which must, I think, have astonished him as much
as anything that he met with in Arabia, even if he acted all the
Thousand and One Nights on the spot. As I have already said, he and
his companion (Albrecht Friedrich Woltersdorf, son of the Pastor of
St. George's Church in Berlin), landed at Harwich on Sunday, August
10. They staid there that night, and on Monday they walked over
to Colchester. There (I presume the next morning) they took the
"Land-Kutsche," and were _barely six hours_ on the road to London.
This statement seems to me to be so at variance with notorious facts,
that, but for one or two circumstances, I should have quietly set it
down for a mistake; but as I do not feel that I can do this, I should
be glad to obtain information which may explain it. It is no error of
words or figures, for the writer expresses very naturally the surprise
which he certainly must have felt at the swiftness of the horses, and
the goodness of the roads. He was a man who had seen something of {35}
the world, for he had lived five-and-thirty years, thirteen of which
had elapsed since he began his travels. As a foreigner he was under
no temptation to exaggerate the superiority of English travelling,
especially to an extent incomprehensible by his countrymen; and, in
short, I cannot imagine any ground for suspecting mistake or untruth
of any kind.[1]
I have never been at Colchester, but I believe it is, and always was,
full fifty miles from London. Ipswich, I believe, is only eighteen
miles farther; and yet _fifteen years_ later we find an advertisement
(_Daily Advertiser_, Thursday, Aug. 30, 1764), announcing that London
and Ipswich Post Coaches on _steel springs_ (think of that, and think
of the astonished Germans careering over the country from Colchester
without that mitigation), from London to Ipswich in _ten hours_ with
Postillions, set out every morning at seven o'clock, Sundays excepted,
from the Black Bull Inn, in Bishopsgate Street.
It is right, however, to add that the Herr Preniger Schultz and his
companion appear to have returned to Colchester, on their way back to
Germany, at a much more moderate pace. The particulars do not very
exactly appear; but it seems from his journal that on the 16th of
September they dined with the Herr Prediger Pittius, minister of the
German Church in the Savoy, at twelve o'clock (_nach teutscher art_,
as the writer observes). They then went to their lodging, settled
their accounts, took up their luggage, and proceeded to the inn from
which the "Stäts-Kutsche" was to start; and on arriving there found
some of their friends assembled, who had ordered a meal, of which they
partook. How much time was occupied in all this, or when the coach set
out, does not appear; but they travelled the whole night, and until
towards noon the next day, before they got to Colchester. This is
rather more intelligible; but as to their up-journey I really am
puzzled, and shall be glad of any explanation.
Yours, &c.