FOURTH READER.

TRAVELLING IN THE LAST CENTURY.

PART I.

1. We often hear people talk about the "good old days." But if in some respects they were good days, it is equally certain that in other respects we are now much better off. We know how easy it is for us to travel from town to town by the railway, or to cross the sea by steamer. We can send goods or small parcels to any part of the country with very little trouble.

2. But it was not always so. Only a hundred years ago things were very different. A few instances will prove this. In 1749 a coach was started to carry passengers from Birmingham to London, but it took three days to reach that city. It left Birmingham only once a week, on every Monday morning, and got back again on Saturday night. We can do this same journey now in six hours.

3. A few years later (1754) a coach ran between Manchester and London. It took four days and a half to complete the journey. This was thought to be so very quick that it was called a "flying coach."

4. A Prussian clergyman, travelling from Leicester to London in 1782, has given a most amusing account of the troubles and hardships of his journey. His seat on the top of the coach was so unsafe, that, as

it was scrambling up a hill, he got into the basket behind, which was put there to carry luggage. But when they began to go down hill he was beaten on

all sides by the shaking boxes and trunks. "Then," he says, "all the boxes began, as it were, to dance around me; everything in the basket appeared to be alive, and every moment I received such violent blows that I thought my last hour had come." He was glad to creep back, as soon as he could, to his old seat.

5. In 1789 the Prince of Wales, afterwards George the Fourth, was upset, as he was riding in his carriage from Wentworth House, near Sheffield, to London. The Prince's coach, when near Newark, was overthrown by a cart in a narrow part of the road, and, rolling down a slope, was dashed to pieces. Strange to say, the Prince was not very much hurt.

6. An account is given of the way in which the merchants of Manchester carried on their business in the last century. One who made a large fortune, used to carry his own goods on pack-horses from town to town. He was thus absent from home for the greater part of the year, and performed all his journeys on horseback. He carried his money in his saddle-bags. He was exposed to all kinds of weather, and to the dangers of highway robbers, who abounded at that time. No private carriage was kept in Manchester until the year 1758.

7. In Scotland, matters were even worse. There were hardly any regular roads at all, and it was a difficult matter to go from one town to another, especially in winter. There were merely tracks across moors, and when one track became too deep, another was made by the side of the old one.

8. The first coach between Edinburgh and Glasgow commenced running in the year 1749, but it took two days for the journey of forty-four miles.

9. A carrier's cart took a fortnight to get from Selkirk to Edinburgh, a distance of thirty-eight miles. On the morning of the carrier's starting, the people of Selkirk would gather round him to wish him a safe return. In the winter the carrier did not attempt the journey.

10. We read of a nobleman travelling in his own carriage in 1760 through the south-western districts of Scotland. He was obliged to take with him a party of labourers to lift his carriage out of the ruts. But, after all, the carriage several times got fast, and when about three miles from a village called

Creetown, near Wigton, he had to send away the labourers, and spend the night with his family in the carriage.

11. In the Highlands of Scotland, after the Rebellion of 1715, several roads had been made by General Wade. In that year several Highland clans had risen in arms in order to place the son of James the Second upon his father's throne. After the Rebellion was put down, these roads were constructed, in order that large numbers of soldiers could be more easily brought into the remote parts of the country to prevent any future risings. But these were the only roads in those wild districts. Thus it was always difficult, and often impossible to get from place to place.

12. Our first great road-maker was a blind man, the son of very poor parents. His name was John Metcalf.1

scrambling, getting on

century, one hundred

with difficulty.

years.

violent, forcible.

luggage, boxes, trunks, &c. pack-horses, horses with

merchant, buyer and seller exposed, liable to.

bags strapped on.

What do people often talk about? When did the first coach commence to run from Birmingham to London? How long did it take to do the journey? In what time

1 See page 241.

What coach was

can we now go this same journey? called a "flying coach?" Why was it so called? Describe the journey of a Prussian clergyman. How was business carried on by Manchester merchants a hundred years ago? Give an account of the carrier's cart between Selkirk and Edinburgh. Who made several roads in Scotland? Why were they made? Who was the first great road-maker of England?

1. Conveyance by water was no better provided for than by land. Until the middle of last century there was very little trade in England. People carried their corn and wool and other articles to market, chiefly on horseback or on the backs of bullocks. Manure was taken to the fields in this Coal was carried on horseback in some parts of the country for the blacksmiths' forges.

manner.