The story of rapid transit . escript. In 1658 the first stage-coach between Londonand Edinburgh was put on the road, setting outonce a fortnight, and taking nearly that time intransit. The ordinary method of traveling then,and for centuries, was on horseback or on had been, it is true, introduced in 1553,but they were little used in the country, where,in fact, the fearful condition of the roads wouldhave restricted their use. In London and all the other large towns thewidth of the streets prevented the use of car-riages; the Sedan chair, borne by porters, beingthe polite mode of p
The story of rapid transit . escript. In 1658 the first stage-coach between Londonand Edinburgh was put on the road, setting outonce a fortnight, and taking nearly that time intransit. The ordinary method of traveling then,and for centuries, was on horseback or on had been, it is true, introduced in 1553,but they were little used in the country, where,in fact, the fearful condition of the roads wouldhave restricted their use. In London and all the other large towns thewidth of the streets prevented the use of car-riages; the Sedan chair, borne by porters, beingthe polite mode of progression. In Charles horses were occasionally used as bearers, i6 THE STORY OF RAPID TRANSIT thus forming the earliest idea of the Hackneycoach. In 1662 there were only six stage-coaches inthe whole kingdom, and even this number wasconsidered by some of the slow-going, conserva-tive citizens as just half-a-dozen too many. Matters were to be yet worse before they werebettered, for with the establishment of the Gen-. The Earliest Hackney Coach. eral Post Office at the Restoration a lower stand-ard of despatch prevailed, and six days, insteadof three, were consumed by the mails betweenLondon and Edinburgh. Such a retrogressionaroused Nottingham, York, and other towns toprotest, and as a consequence the Kings post be-came accelerated to three and a half or fourdays, which was a rate much slower than thatwhich had prevailed thirty years before. Never-theless, it must be remembered that the volume BEGINNINGS OF RAPID TRANSIT 17 of mail business between the two capitals wasvery scanty, a hint of which truth we may obtainfrom the fact that, on one occasion in 1745, themail brought only a single letter from the South•—for the British Linen Company. On anotherday in the same year only one was received inLondon—for Sir William Pulteney, the Edinburgh four days from London it wason a par with Constantinople at the present day. Early in the eighteenth century, w
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