“Men do not travel in these coaches with less expence of money, or time, than on horseback: for, on horseback, they may travel faster: and, if they please, all things duly considered, with as little if not less charges. For instance: from London to Exeter, Chester, or York, you pay forty shillings a-piece in summer-time, forty-five shillings in winter, for your passage: and as much from those places back to London. Besides, in the journey they change coachmen four times: and there are few passengers that give twelve-pence to each coachman at the end of his stage: which comes to eight shillings in the journey backward and forward, and at least three shillings comes to each passenger’s share to pay for the coachmen’s drink on the road: so that in summer-time the passage backward and forward to any of these places costs four pounds eleven shillings, in the winter five pounds one shilling. And this only for eight days riding in the summer, and twelve in the winter. Then, when the passengers come to London, they must have lodgings: which, perhaps, may cost them five or six shillings a week, and that in fourteen days amounts unto ten or twelve shillings, which makes the four pounds eleven shillings either five pounds one shilling, or five pounds three shillings: or the five pounds one shilling, five pounds eleven shillings, or five pounds thirteen shillings: beside the inconvenience of having meat from the cooks, at double the price they might have it for in inns. But if stage coaches were down and men travelled as formerly, on horseback, then when they came into their inns they would pay nothing for lodgings: and as there would excellent horses be bred and kept by gentlemen for their own use, so would there be by others that would keep them on purpose to let: which would, as formerly, be let at ten or twelve shillings per week, and in many places for six, eight, or nine shillings a week. But admitting the lowest price to be twelve shillings, if a man comes from York, Exeter, or Chester, to London: be five days coming, five days going, and say twelve days in London to dispatch his business (which is the most that country chapmen usually do stay) all this would be but three weeks: so that his horse-hire would come but to one pound sixteen shillings, his horse-meat at fourteen pence a day, one with another, which is the highest that can be reckoned upon, and will come but to one pound five shillings, in all three pounds one shilling: so that there would be, at least, forty or fifty shillings saved of what coach-hire and lodgings will cost him: which would go a great way in paying for riding-clothes, stockings, hats, boots, spurs, and other accoutrements for riding: and, in my poor opinion, would be far better spent in the buying of these things, by the making whereof the poor would be set at work, and kept from being burthensome to the parish, than to give it to those stage-coachmen, to indulge that lazy, idle habit of body, that men, by constant riding in these coaches have brought upon themselves.”
CHAPTER VIII
PUNISHMENT AND CRIME
In the following chapter will be found certain notes on crime and criminals. There is little difference between the crimes of the Elizabethan and those of the Stuart period. I have added two or three stories of the period which seem to affect the manners of London. Hundreds of such stories might be found scattered up and down the annals of the seventeenth century. I have made these meagre selections with sparing hand. The crime of Lord Sanquhar; the cruelty of the Puritan in his punishments; an example of the honest citizen; the treachery of a noble lord; the origin of General Monk’s wife, and one or two more persons and episodes may be taken as illustrations of the times.
The punishment of criminals under the English law remained all through the century cruel and vindictive. High treason continued to be punished with the old barbarities; we have seen what these were. The coiner, if a man, was drawn on a hurdle and hanged; if a woman, she was burned alive. For petty treason, which is the murder of a master, a husband, or a superior officer, the offender was hanged if a man; burned if a woman. For felony of all kinds, hanging. If a man refused to plead he was pressed to death. After death, the body was sometimes hung in chains. In felonies where Benefit of Clergy was still allowed, the offender was branded on the left hand. For petty larceny, the punishments were the loss of an ear, or a whipping. Perjury was punished with pillory, with branding on the forehead, while the offender’s trees were pulled up in his garden and his goods confiscated. Forgery, cheating, libelling, using false weights and measures, forestalling the market, offending against the statutes in bakery and brewery, were punished with pillory, and sometimes by nailing one or both ears to the pillory, or cutting them off, or boring through the tongue with a hot iron. For striking in the King’s Court the right hand was struck off. For striking in Westminster Hall while the judges were sitting, the punishment was imprisonment for life and confiscation of the offender’s goods.
If a jury bought in a verdict contrary to evidence they were liable to lose the franchise; to be incapable of acting as witness or on a jury, to lose their lands and property, and to be imprisoned.
The stocks were for drunkards and vagabonds. Scolding women were to be ducked in the ducking stool.
This goodly array of punishments was in full practice during the seventeenth century.
There were other crimes not dealt with in this list, especially the crime of witchcraft. James has been held up to ridicule for believing in witchcraft. This is unjust, because there were very few in the country who had the strength of mind to disbelieve it. Fortunately the wave of superstitious terror hardly touched London.
The practice of duelling could be defended on the ground of its being a survival, in a sense, of the old ordeal by battle. James I. was the first who made an effort to restrict and abolish the practice.