were described in the Privy Council Record of 1680 to have been in so wretched a state that passengers were in danger of their lives, 'either by their couches overturning, their horse falling, their carts breaking, their loads casting and horse stumbling, the poor people with their burdens on their backs sorely grieved and discouraged; moreover, strangers do often exclaim thereat.' ... The common carrier from Edinburgh to Selkirk, a distance of thirty-eight miles, required a fortnight for the journey going and returning.
"An express messenger conveying the news of the death of Charles II., who died on the 6th February 1685, was received in Edinburgh at one o'clock on the morning of the 10th February. ... In 1688 it required three months to convey the tidings of the abdication of James II. of England and VII. of Scotland to the Orkney Islands."
Even so late as 1703, in a journey made by Prince George of Denmark from Windsor to Retford,
"The length of way was only forty miles, but fourteen hours were consumed in traversing it; whilst almost every mile was signalised by the overturn of a carriage, or its temporary swamping in the mire. Even the royal chariot would have fared no better than the rest had it not been for the relays of peasants who poised and kept it erect by strength of arm, and shouldered it forward the last nine miles, in which tedious operation six good hours were consumed."
The introduction of post-carriages was not made without a certain interference with existing interests; and when it was seen that the old mode of travelling on horseback was to be permanently interfered with, great opposition arose on the part of the post-riders. Pamphlets were written to denounce the change. In one of these it was asserted that the introduction of stage-coaches was the greatest evil "that had happened of late years to these kingdoms." The pamphlet continues: "Those who travel in coaches contract an idle habit of body; afterwards they become weary and listless, if they have to ride a few miles – quite unfit to travel on horseback, and are not able to endure frost, snow, or rain, or to lodge in the fields." The stage-coaches cannot have been very comfortable. M. Sobrière, who landed at Dover at the close of Charles II.'s reign, had not a very exalted idea of the merits of the new post-coaches. He says: "That I might not have to use them, I went from Dover to London in a waggon. I was drawn by six horses, placed one after another, and driven by a waggoner who walked by the side of them. He was clothed in black, and appointed in all things like another St George. He had a brave Montero on his head, and was a merry fellow, fancied he made a figure, and seemed mightily pleased with himself." These stage-waggons, which M. Sobrière refers to, were frequently made use of for passengers as well as merchandise. Smollett and Hogarth have each in their way given an animated description of the strange society that was bundled together in these rough and rude conveyances. In William III.'s reign, a string of waggons travelled between London and' Liverpool, starting from Aldermanbury every Monday and Thursday, occupying ten days on the journey in summer, and twelve in winter. On most roads the carriers never changed horses, and were so proverbially slow in the north of England, that the publicans of Furness, in Lancashire, when they saw the conductors of the travelling merchandise-trains appear in sight on the summit of Wrynose Hill, on their journey between Whitehaven and Kendal, were jocularly said to begin to
