374

CHAP.

III.

Highway-

men.

HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

cupidity and prejudice to the improvements of the nineteenthcentury, may smile in their turn. *

In spite of the attractions of the flying coaches, it was stillusual for men who enjoyed health and vigour, and who werenot encumbered by much baggage, to perform long journeyson horseback. If the traveller wished to move expeditiouslyhe rode post. Fresh saddle horses and guides were to beprocured at convenient distances along all the great lines ofroad. The charge was threepence a mile for each horse, andfourpence a stage for the guide. In this manner, when theways were good, it was possible to travel, for a considerabletime, as rapidly as by any conveyance known in England, tillvehicles were propelled by steam. There were as yet no postchaises; nor could those who rode in their own coaches or-dinarily procure a change of horses. The King, however,and the great officers of state were able to command relays.Thus Charles commonly went in one day from Whitehall toNewmarket, a distance of about fifty-five miles through a levelcountry; and this was thought by his subjects a proof of greatactivity. Evelyn performed the same journey in companywith the Lord Treasurer Clifford. The coach was drawn bysix horses, which were changed at Bishop Stortford and againat Chesterford. The travellers reached Newmarket at night.Such a mode of conveyance seems to have been considered asa rare luxury confined to princes and ministers. **

Whatever might be the way in which a journey was per-formed, the travellers, unless they were numerous and wellarmed, ran considerable risk of being stopped and plundered.The mounted highwayman, a marauder known to our genera-

* John Cresset’s Reasons for suppressing Stage Coaches, 1612.These reasons were afterwards inserted in a tract, entitled “The GrandConcern of England explained, 1613.” Cresset’s attack on stage coachescalled forth some answers which I have consulted.

** Chamberlayne’s State of England, 1684. North’s Examen, 105.Evelyn’s Diary, Oct. 9,10. 1611.