Chapter I: Front Matter

Transcriber’s Note: Italic text is shown within _underscores_; boldface text is shown within =equals signs=. Other notes will be found at the end of the text.

STAGE-COACH
AND MAIL IN
DAYS OF YORE

WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR

=The Brighton Road=: Old Times and New on a Classic Highway.

=The Portsmouth Road=, and its Tributaries: To-day and in
Days of Old.

=The Dover Road=: Annals of an Ancient Turnpike.

=The Bath Road=: History, Fashion, and Frivolity on an Old
Highway.

=The Exeter Road=: The Story of the West of England Highway.

=The Great North Road=: The Old Mail Road to Scotland. Two
Vols.

=The Norwich Road=: An East Anglian Highway.

=The Holyhead Road=: The Mail-Coach Road to Dublin. Two Vols.

=The Cambridge, Ely, and King’s Lynn Road=: The Great
Fenland Highway.

=Cycle Rides Round London.=

=The Oxford, Gloucester, and Milford Haven Road=: Two Vols.
[_In the Press._

THE MAIDENHEAD AND MARLOW POST-COACH, 1782.
_From a contemporary painting._
]

STAGE-COACH
AND MAIL IN
DAYS OF YORE

_A PICTURESQUE HISTORY
OF THE COACHING AGE_

VOL. I

BY CHARLES G. HARPER

_Illustrated from Old-Time Prints
and Pictures_

LONDON:

CHAPMAN & HALL, LIMITED
1903

_All rights reserved_

PRINTED BY
HAZELL, WATSON AND VINEY, LD.,
LONDON AND AYLESBURY.

_“Hang up my old whip over the fireplace,” said Harry Littler, of the Southampton “Telegraph,” when the London and Southampton Railway was opened, in 1833,--“I shan’t want it never no more”: and he fell ill, turned his face to the wall, and died._

_The end of the coaching age was a tragedy for the coachmen; and even to many others, whose careers and livelihood were not bound up with the old order of things, it was a bitter uprooting of established customs. Many travellers were never reconciled to railways, and in imagination dwelt fondly in the old days of the road for the rest of their lives; while many more never ceased to recount stories of the peculiar glory and exhilaration of old-time travel, forgetting the miseries and inconveniences that formed part of it. But although reminiscent oldsters have talked much about those vanished times, they have rarely attempted a consecutive story of them. Such an attempt is that essayed in these pages, confined within the compass of two volumes, not because material for a third was lacking, but simply for sake of expediency. It is shown in the body of this book, and may be noted again in this place, that the task of writing anything in the nature of a History of Coaching is rendered exceeding difficult by reason of the disappearance of most of the documentary evidence on which it should be based; but I have been fortunate enough to secure the aid of Mr. Joseph Baxendale in respect of the history of Pickford & Co., of Mr. William Chaplin, grandson of the great coach-proprietor, and of Mr. Benjamin Worthy Horne, grandson of Chaplin’s partner, for information concerning their respective families. Colonel Edmund Palmer, also, communicated interesting notes on his grandfather, John Palmer, the founder of the mail-coach system. To my courteous friend, Mr. W. H. Duignan, of Walsall, whose own recollections of coaching, and whose collections of coaching prints and notes I have largely used, this acknowledgment is due. Mr. J. B. Muir, of 35, Wardour Street, my obliging friend of years past, has granted extensive use of his collection of sporting pictures, and Messrs. Arthur Ackermann & Son, of 191, Regent Street, have lent prints and pictures from their establishment._

CHARLES G. HARPER.

PETERSHAM, SURREY,
_April 1903_.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE INTRODUCTION OF CARRIAGES 1

II. THE HORSEMEN 14

III. DAWN OF THE COACHING AGE 57

IV. GROWTH OF COACHING IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 87

V. THE STAGE-WAGGONS AND WHAT THEY CARRIED: HOW THE POOR
TRAVELLED 103

VI. THE EARLY MAIL-COACHES 146

VII. THE NINETEENTH CENTURY: 1800–1824 181

VIII. COACH LEGISLATION 194

IX. THE EARLY COACHMEN 221

X. THE LATER COACHMEN 231

XI. MAIL-GUARDS 249

XII. STAGE-COACH GUARDS 272

XIII. HOW THE COACHES WERE NAMED 282

XIV. GOING BY COACH: BOOKING OFFICES 320

XV. HOW THE COACH PASSENGERS FARED: MANNERS AND CUSTOMS DOWN
THE ROAD 333

SEPARATE PLATES

PAGE
1. THE MAIDENHEAD AND MARLOW POST-COACH, 1782. (_From a
contemporary Painting_) _Frontispiece_

2. THE STAGE-COACH, 1783. (_After Rowlandson_) 83

3. THE WAGGON, 1816. (_After Rowlandson_) 115

4. THE STAGE-WAGGON, 1820. (_After J. L. Agasse_) 121

5. THE ROAD-WAGGON: A TRYING CLIMB. (_After J. Pollard_) 131

6. THE STAGE-WAGGON, 1816. (_By Rowlandson_) 137

7. PICKFORD’S LONDON AND MANCHESTER FLY VAN, 1826. (_After
George Best_) 141

8. JOHN PALMER AT THE AGE OF 17. (_Attributed to Gainsborough,
R.A._) 149

9. JOHN PALMER. (_From the Painting by Gainsborough, R.A._) 153

10. THE MAIL-COACH, 1803. (_From the Engraving after George
Robertson_) 169

11. JOHN PALMER IN HIS 75TH YEAR. (_From an Etching by the
Hon. Martha Jervis_) 175

12. MRS. BUNDLE IN A RAGE; OR, TOO LATE FOR THE STAGE.
(_After Rowlandson_, 1809) 183

13. THE SHEFFIELD COACH, ABOUT 1827. (_From a contemporary
Painting_) 187

14. THE “BIRMINGHAM EXPRESS” LEAVING THE “HEN AND CHICKENS.”
(_From a contemporary Painting_) 191

15. “MY DEAR, YOU’RE A PLUMPER”: COACHMAN AND BARMAID.
(_After Rowlandson_) 223

16. THE OLD “PRINCE OF WALES” BIRMINGHAM COACH. (_After H.
Alken_) 233

17. IN TIME FOR THE COACH. (_After C. Cooper Henderson,
1848_) 243

18. STUCK FAST. (_After C. Cooper Henderson, 1834_) 267

19. THE “READING TELEGRAPH” PASSING WINDSOR CASTLE. (_After
J. Pollard_) 297

20. THE EXETER MAIL, 1809. (_After J. A. Atkinson_) 301

21. THE BRIGHTON “COMET,” 1836. (_After J. Pollard_) 307

22. MATTHEWS’ PATENT SAFETY COACHES ON THE BRIGHTON ROAD 313

23. A COACH-BREAKFAST. (_After J. Pollard_) 349

ILLUSTRATIONS IN TEXT

PAGE
Vignette (_Title-page_)

Preface vii

List of Illustrations xi

Stage-coach and Mail in Days of Yore 1

Arms of the Worshipful Company of Coach and Harness Makers 12

Epigram Scratched with a Diamond-ring on a Window-pane by Dean
Swift 46

Old Coaching Bill, Preserved at the “Black Swan,” York 75

Old Birmingham Coaching Bill 81

Coaching Advertisement from the _Edinburgh Courant_, 1754 89

One of Three Mail-coach Halfpennies struck at Bath, 1797 173

Moses James Nobbs, the Last of the Mail-guards 265