The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1862-04-15 00:00:00

LITERARY NOTICES.

CHAMBIRS'III JOURNAL. —ln (these go-ahead days,
express trains are scarcely swift enough to convey us
from place to place. What should we say if we were
carried a eentnry• back to the good old times, when
everybody rode, except the very poor, "Shanks his
alarm In the March part of Chambers's Journal, one
of the bestef oar serial publicatiens,ws have a chapter
on "Old Roads and Slow Coaches. , well worthy of
periaal. We often complain of the badness of the
roads in this county, what shall we say of the roads in
Sussex? " Fuller beheld an old lady of that county
• being dragged to chunh by six oxen ; and a contein•
porary of his asserts that the reason why the Sussex
girls are so long limbed arises from the necessity of
pulliag the feet out of the mud, which strengthens the
muscle and lengthens the bene." We have ourselves
heard one of our ancestors state that when he went to
church to be married, one horse carried him and his in-
tended—he riding before awl she behind, and Chambers'
Informs us that When Queen Elizabeth went into
the city, she rode thus behind her lord chancellor.
Coaidder the embarrassment of that high functionary
now-a-days in such a position as this The first stage
coaches were wagons. It is related of 'that valiant
knyght, Sir Barry Sydney,' that on a certain day in
Ififfl; he entered Shrewsbury with his wagon. with his
trouspeter.blowynge, verey joyfull to behold and see.
The first stage coach in the middle of the 17th century,
in the better part of the highways 'boat London,
travelled lit the rate of four miles an hour. In the
the winter they' did not run at ell, but were laid up for
the season like ships in Ardis" frost,. The roach be-
tween York and Leeds performed Its twenty-four miles
in eight hours, but the roads were so bad and dangerous
that the passengers walked most of the way. Travel-
ling by coach was in early thine a very deliberate
affair. Thee was of less consequence then safety, and
coaches were advertised to start "God willing," and
about "snot and such an hour "as shall seem good"
to the majority of passengers. The difference of a day
in the journey from London to York was a small
matter; and Thorealy was even accustomed to leave
tho coach, and go in search of fossil shells in the fields
on either side of the road while making the journey be-
tween the two places. The long coach put up at
"Standown, and slept on the rind." Whether the
*each was to proceed or stop short at mime favourite
inn, was determined by the vote of the passengers,
who usually appointed a chairman at the beginning of
the journey. In 1700 York was a week distant from
London; and Tunbridge Wells, now reached in an
hoist, was two days., Salisbury and Oxford were also
two days' journey, sod Exeter five. The SyMoseh
from London to Exeter slept at the latter place the
fifth I:light from Town; the coach proceeded next
morning to Axminster, where it breakfasted, and
where • women-barber "shaved the coach." Between
London and Edinburgh, to late as 1763, • fortnight was
consumed, the coach starting only once a mouth. The
risk of break-downs in driving over the execrable roads
may be inferred from the circumstance that every
coach carried with it a box of carpenters' tools, and the
hatchets were occasionally used in lopping off the
branches of trees overhanging the road and obstructing
the travellers' progress. The amount of intercourse.
under these circumstances, between North and. South,
' was indeed small. Lancashire was thought to be
almost impeaetrable, and inhabited by • half savage
race. Camden vagnely described it previously to his
visit in 1607, as that part of the country "lying
beyend the mountain& towards the Western Ocean.'
lie acknowledged that he approached the Lancashire
people "with • kind of drekd," but determined at
length " to run the hazard of the attempt," trusting in
the Divine assistance. London wailed with salt meats
, i'fling the whole winter, and the market gardeners
letitioned against the extension of turnpike-roads, so
lately is a century ago, upon the ground that their
trade would be destroyed by country grown cabbages.
, The Mhooherter dying coach wise started in 1764, with
the following prospectus:—" However incredible it
' may appear, this amen will actually (barring accidents),
erriire in London iu four days and s haff after) g
Manchester." The road across Hounslow Heath was
even then reported before a Parliamentary Committee
,to be often_two feet . deep in mud. Sheffield set ap a
flying machine on steel springs," to London, in 1700.
It slept "the first night at the Black Kane Head,*
Nottingham ; the second at the Angel, Northampton ;
and arrived st the Swan with l'wo Necks, Lad 'Lane,
on the evening of the third day. The fare woof]. 175.,
and 141 be. of luggage was allowed. But the heaviest
part of the charge was for living and lodging on the
road, not to mention the fees to guards and drivers.
The style in which the journey was performed may be
inferred front the circumstance, that on one occasion
when a quarrel took place between the guard and
passenger, the coach stopped to see them "fight it out
on the road." The part contains about thirty amusing
and instructive tales, and we can heartily recommend
It as being owe ot the best faintly journals published.
nall CHURCH ItIterITUTION CIRCULAR.—Thie is a
penny weekly publication, affording information on the
various questions of the day which effete the win-
tenance sod development of the United Church of
England and Ireland. It gives reports of the proceed-
ing* ef various local assoeiations, abetraete of the pro.
asedings in Parliament and Convocation, copies of the
division ilas in Parliament in questions relating to the
antra, and erelong other matters in'conneotion with
' extr national religion ne•edltiteetiore.