Charles II. instituted tolls for the repair of the roads, but they were not extended over the whole of the country till 1767. In 1675 Lady Russell writes that it is not possible to describe the badness of the roads between Sevenoaks and Tunbridge Wells.
Post horses were threepence a mile, riding horses 2s. the first day, and 1s. a day afterwards, the hirer to pay for food and to bring back the horse.
The fare for travelling in a stage coach was a shilling for every five miles; therefore, for the journey from London to York it would be forty shillings.
There were pamphlets for and against the use of the stage coach; it caused those who travelled in it to contract “an idle habit of body; they became heavy and listless when they rode a few miles, and were not able to endure frost, snow, or rain, or to lodge in the field.” This seems a very sound objection; there can be no doubt that when everybody rode or walked, people were much hardier to stand against cold or heat. On the other hand the stage coach had its defenders. One of them says that “there is of late such an admirable commodiousness, both for men and women, to travel from London to the principal towns in the country, that the like hath not been known in the world, and that is by stage coaches, wherein any one may be transported to any place sheltered from foul weather and foul ways.”
The writer of a pamphlet in 1675 thus denounces them:—
“There is not the fourth part of saddle-horses either bred, or kept, now in England, that was before these coaches were set up, and would be again, if they were suppressed, nor is there any occasion for breeding, or keeping such horses, whilst the coaches are continued. For, will any man keep a horse for himself and another for his man, all the year, for to ride one or two journeys: that at pleasure, when he hath occasion, can slip to any place where his business lies, for two, three or four shillings, if within twenty miles of London: and so proportionately into any part of England: No: there is no man: unless some noble soul, that scorns and abhors being confined to so ignoble, base, and sordid a way of travelling as these coaches oblige him unto. For formerly every man that had occasion to travel many journeys yearly, or to ride up and down, kept horses for himself and servants, and seldom rid without one or two men: but now, since every man can have a passage into every place he is to travel unto, or to some place within a few miles of that part he designs to go unto, they have left keeping of horses, and travel without servants; and York, Chester, and Exeter stage-coaches, each of them, with forty horses apiece, carry eighteen passengers a week from London to either of these places: and, in like manner, as many in return from these places to London: which come, in the whole, to eighteen hundred and seventy-two in the year. Now take it for granted that all that are carried from London to those places are the same that are brought back: yet are there nine hundred and thirty-six passengers carried by forty horses: whereas, were it not for these coaches, at least five hundred horses would be required to perform this work.”
We have already considered the complaint of the watermen. The stage coaches having begun to carry passengers as far as Windsor and Maidenhead up the river, and to Greenwich and Gravesend down the river, who will take a boat, which is far slower and less comfortable than the coach?
The next point of consideration is that of His Majesty’s Excise. Formerly every traveller of quality rode with his servants, who consumed a great quantity of beer and wine on the journey. When coaches began, the passengers travelled without any servants at all, to the great loss of the inns on the road and the corresponding injury to the Excise. And consider the losses inflicted on trade:—
“For before these coaches were set up, travellers rode on horseback, and men had boots, spurs, saddles, bridles, saddle-cloths, and good riding-suits, coats and clokes, stockings and hats: whereby the wool and leather of the kingdom was consumed, and the poor people set at work by carding, combing, spinning, knitting, weaving, and fulling. And your cloth-workers, drapers, tailors, saddlers, tanners, curriers, shoemakers, spurriers, lorimers, and felt-makers had a good employ: were full of work, got money, lived handsomely, and helped, with their families, to consume the provisions and manufactures of the kingdom: but by means of these coaches, these trades, besides many others depending upon them, are become almost useless: and they, with their families, reduced to great necessity: insomuch that many thousands of them are cast upon the parishes, wherein they dwell, for a maintenance. Besides, it is a great hurt to the girdlers, sword-cutlers, gunsmiths, and trunk-makers: most gentlemen, before they travelled in their coaches, used to ride with swords, belts, pistols, holsters, portmanteaus, and hat-cases: which, in these coaches, they have little or no occasion for. For, when they rode on horseback, they rode in one suit, and carried another to wear, when they came to their journey’s end; or lay by the way: but in coaches, a silk suit and an Indian gown with a sash, silk stockings and beaver-hats men ride in, and carry no other with them, because they escape the wet and dirt, which on horseback they cannot avoid: whereas, in two or three journeys on horseback these clothes and hats were wont to be spoiled: which done, they were forced to have new very often, and that increased the consumption of the manufactures, and the employment of the manufacturer: which travelling in coaches doth no way do. And if they were women that travelled, they used to have safeguards and hoods, side-saddles, and pillions, with strappings, saddle or pillion-cloths, which, for the most part, were either laced or embroidered: to the making of which there went many several trades: seeing there is not one side-saddle with the furniture made, but, before it is furnished, there are at least thirty-seven trades have a share in the making thereof: most of which are either destroyed, or greatly prejudiced, by the abatement of their trade: which being bread unto, and having served seven years’ apprenticeship to learn, they know not what other course to take for a livelihood. And, besides all these inferior handy-craftsmen there are the mercers, silkmen, lacemen, milliners, linen and woollen drapers, haberdashers, and divers other eminent trades, that receive great prejudice by this way of travelling. For the mercers sold silk and stuff in great quantities for safeguards, hoods, and riding clothes for women: by which means the silk-twisters, winders, throwsters, weavers, and dyers, had a fuller employment: the silkmen sold more lace and embroidery, which kept the silver wire-drawers, lace-makers, and embroiderers: and at least ten trades more were employed. The linen-draper sold more linen, not only to saddlers to make up saddles, but to travellers for their own use: nothing wearing out linen more than riding. Woollen-drapers sold more cloth than now: saddlers used before these coaches were set up, to buy three or four hundred pounds worth of cloth a-piece in a year: nay, some five hundred and a thousand pounds worth, which they cut out into saddles and pillion-cloths: though now there is no saddler can dispose of one hundred pounds worth of cloth in a year in his trade. The milliners and haberdashers, they also sold more ribbons, and riding on horseback, spoiling and wearing them out, much more than travelling in a coach: and, on horseback these things were apter to be lost than in a coach.”
And the expense:—