View report page

43
become the conveyances of the more humble travellers, he
palliates their existence rather on the plea of comparative
antiquity than on the ground of convenience. His excuse for
them appears somewhat curious in these days of express
trains, for he remarks that "they travel not such long
journeys, go not out so early in the morning, neither come in
so late at night; but stay by the way, travel easily,
without jolting men's bodies, or hurrying them along as the
running coaches do."
Readers of Smollett may remember his description of a
journey from York to London by wagon. Roderick Random
and his friend Strap overtook, without difficulty, the vehicle
which had the start of a quarter of a mile, and climbing up a
ladder into the conveyance tumbled into the straw, finding
themselves under the darkness of the tilt in the company of
two gentlemen and two genteel specimens of the other sex.
The journey occupied about twelve days and cost ten shillings.
The "running coaches," which so jolted men's bodies, are
said to have attained an average speed of rather more than
four miles an hour, but the roads as well as the vehicles were
to blame for the jolting, and also for an occasional failure to
maintain this high average of speed. The increasing nse of
vehicles led to an attempt to improve the condition of the
roads, and a Turnpike Act was passed with this object in the
reign of Charles II.; but as late as 1739 the turnpike road
northwards from London did not extend further than Grantham,
the journey beyond that point being made upon a
narrow causeway, edged with a soft unmade road. Nor did
the northern roads enjoy a monopoly of badness, for the
Duke of Somerset, as late as the year 1740, was unable to
complete the journey from Petworth to London in one day,
but was compelled to pass the night at Guildford on account
of the state of the roads. On another occasion his Grace
directs his keepers and others who know the holes and sloughs
D 2