Produced by Chris Curnow, Susan Skinner and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) Transcriberâs Notes: Italic text is shown _thus_. Bold text is shown =thus=. The original spelling, hyphenation, accentuation and punctuation has been retained except for apparent typographical errors. A table of contents has been added by the transcriber. THE MANCHESTER AND GLASGOW ROAD CONTENTS. WORKS BY CHARLES G. HARPER PREFACE LONDON TO MANCHESTER LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS SEPARATE PLATES ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT THE MANCHESTER AND GLASGOW ROAD I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X XI XII XIII XIV XV XVI XVII XVIII XIX XX XXI XXII XXIII XXIV XXV XXVI XXVII XXVIII XXIX XXX XXXI XXXII XXXIII WORKS BY CHARLES G. HARPER =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 Kingâs Lynn Road=: The Great Fenland Highway. =The Newmarket, Bury, Thetford, and Cromer Road=: Sport and History on an East Anglian Turnpike. =The Oxford, Gloucester, and Milford Haven Road=: The Ready Way to South Wales. Two Vols. =The Brighton Road=: Speed, Sport, and History on the Classic Highway. =The Hastings Road= and the âHappy Springs of Tunbridge.â =Cycle Rides Round London.= =A Practical Handbook of Drawing for Modern Methods of Reproduction.= =Stage Coach and Mail in Days of Yore.= Two Vols. =The Ingoldsby Country=: Literary Landmarks of âThe Ingoldsby Legends.â =The Hardy Country=: Literary Landmarks of the Wessex Novels. =The Dorset Coast.= =The South Devon Coast.= =The Old Inns of Old England.= Two Vols. =Love in the Harbour=: a Longshore Comedy. =Rural Nooks Round London= (Middlesex and Surrey). =Haunted Houses=; Tales of the Supernatural. =The North Devon Coast.= [_In the Press._ [Illustration: THE MAIL CHANGE. [_By J. Herring, 1844._] THE MANCHESTER AND GLASGOW ROAD _THIS WAY TO GRETNA GREEN_ By CHARLES G. HARPER _ILLUSTRATED BY THE AUTHOR, AND FROM OLD-TIME PRINTS AND PICTURES_ Vol. I.âLONDON TO MANCHESTER [Illustration: Guard] LONDON CHAPMAN & HALL, LTD. 1907 PRINTED AND BOUND BY HAZELL, WATSON AND VINEY, LD., LONDON AND AYLESBURY. PREFACE [Illustration] â_Onward and onward the highway runs to the distant city, impatiently bearing Tidings of human joy and disaster, of love and of hate, of doing and daring._â THE GOLDEN LEGEND. _Those lines, instinct with the dramatic possibilities of the road in far-off days, call to mind the old engravings and wood-cuts of the Durer school, in whose back-grounds, on the Hill Terrible, sits the City Beautiful, reached along a delectable road that wanders, now across open heaths and then disappears in the welcome shade of hoary woods; reappearing to reach its goal beside mountain streams and torrents, whose boulderous course it spans by high-arched bridges. Down such roads as these, in woodcuts such as those, go horsed and armed knights, very plumy and steely, ladies fair on their palfreys, with high-horned head-dresses; pages, men-at-arms, peasants, and all the mediÃ¦val traffic of the highways; while the verminous hermit in his cell by the bridge comes to his door as the wayfarers go by, scratching himself with one hand, and in the other holding a scallop-shell for the alms he, in a pitiful voice and in the name of God and all the saints, implores._ _Those lines, in that modern versification of the terrible old legend by Jacobus de Voragine, bring all these things vividly before the imagination. You may almost scent the hawthorn blossom on the wayside hedges, can all but feel the soft breath of the wind, or the heat oâ the sun, and can even smell the hermit, rich in pietistic dirt. Joy and disaster, love and hate, doing and daring, all had their place on the highway in those times: Romance and the Road were terms convertible._ _Now all those things are as tales that are told; but for centuries the Road retained that old distinction: the mediÃ¦val company had passed away: the knights and the ladies to their altar-tombs in the old country churches, the rest none knows whither; but after then came later generations, all travelling, living, hating, and loving along the highways, and so they continued to do, through the coaching era and until railways for a_ _long series of years rendered the Road an obsolete institution._ _When did the immemorial co-partnership of Romance and the Road begin to be dissolved? Let us consider. The first beginnings are found in the introduction of telegraphic signalling, when signal-stations were erected on the hills, and messages were passed on from one to another by means of revolving shutters or semaphore arms. The system originated about 1795, and came into use along this road in 1803. We read in the âObserverâ of that period the startling announcement: âA line of communication, by means of telegraphs, is to be established between London and the north, by which intelligence will be conveyed in six hours at the distance of 400 miles.â Here, then, we find the parting of the ways! Instead of the horsed messenger, performing that distance in, let us say, forty-five hours, the telegraphists sent messages through in a fraction of that time, providing conditions were favourable. A very serious draw-back to the system was that in dull or stormy weather it was unworkable._ _What the mechanical telegraph began the railways and the electric telegraph completed, and the roadsâsave for the cycles and the motor-cars from whose presence Romance flies abashedâhave_ _lost their intimate touch with life. They are largely removed from the sordid instant, and that is why we love them. Present-day romance will only be found by the next generation when, to adopt an American locution, it has become a âback numberâ: for ourselves, we are fain to the poor recourse of listening to the elfin harmonies of the winds in the wayside telegraph-poles, and to deduce romantic messages from those sounds; but alas! so little romantic may they be that the wires are probably flashing market reports to the effect that âgrey shirtings are quiet,â or âbacon was steady.â Yet, on the other hand, a police message may be passing, to lead to the arrest of some fugitive: some fraudulent Napoleon of finance or one of the smaller fry: you never know!_ _In the old days, the criminal, visible to our physical eyes, would be seen, fleeing from justice, and after him, at a decent interval, the officers of the law, tailing away in a long perspective, properly exhausted and furious, their horses foaming and reeking with sweat in most appropriate style. You only see that sort of thing nowadays at Drury Lane or the Adelphi, but they do it very well there, even though the foam and the reek be applied with sponge and soap-suds._ _He who would now find sights like these along the roads would need to wait long. The fugitives are as many as ever, but they are in yonder train. The telegraph has already outstripped such an one before he has gone a quarter of his journey, and the police are waiting at the other end, where, quite emotionless and regardless of dramatic necessities, they will presently arrest him._ _Long stretches of the roads themselves are altered, with the growth of towns, into something new and strange, and where Terror stalked starkly in days of yore and Romance sped, flaunting, by, smug suburbs spread their vistas of red-brick, paved, and kerbed and lighted, and only the doctor, the collectors of rates and taxes, and the cries of the evening newspaper-boys stir the pulses of the inhabitants. The tragedies that sometimes await the doctorâs visits are a poor substitute for the soul-stirring days of oldâthey are too domestic: and that occasional inability to meet the demands of the tax-gatherer and the rate-collector which even the most respectable suburbs occasionally know is not tragedy in the inspiring sort._ _The pilgrim of the roads therefore finds his account in the past; and it is to illustrate the long leagues for him that these pages are wrought_ _out of long-forgotten things. Such an one, cycling, perchance, down the first few tramway-infested miles and cleansing himself after the almost inevitable muddy skid, may make shift to call a Tapleian philosophy to his aid, and exclaim with gratitude: âAfter all, it is an improvement upon two hundred years ago. Why, if I had been travelling here_ THEN, _I should probably have been robbed and beatenâperhaps even murderedâby the highwaymen!_â CHARLES G. HARPER, PETERSHAM, SURREY, _October, 1907_. THE MANCHESTER AND GLASGOW ROAD LONDON TO MANCHESTER MILES London (General Post Office) to Islington (the âAngelâ) 1-1/4 Highgate Archway 4-1/4 East End, Finchley 5-3/4 Brownâs Wells, Finchley Common (âGreen Manâ) 7 North Finchley: âTally-ho Cornerâ 7-1/2 Whetstone 9-1/4 Greenhill Cross 10-1/4 Barnet 11-1/4 South Mimms 14-1/2 Ridge Hill 16 London Colney 17-1/2 (Cross River Colne.) St. Albans (âPeahenâ) 20-3/4 Redbourne 25 Friarâs Wash 27-1/2 Markyate 29 Dunstable (âCrownâ) 33-1/2 Hockliffe 37-1/2 Woburn 42 Woburn Sands 43-3/4 Wavendon 45-1/4 Broughton 47-1/2 Newport Pagnell 50-1/2 (Cross River Ouse.) Lathbury 51-1/4 Gayhurst 53-1/4 Stoke Goldington 55 Eakley Lane 56-1/2 Horton 59 Piddington 59-1/4 Hackleton 60 Queenâs Cross 64 Northampton (All Saintsâ Church) 65-1/4 Kingsthorpe 67 Brixworth 71-3/4 Lamport 74-1/4 (Level Crossing, Lamport Station.) Maidwell 75-1/4 Kelmarsh 76-3/4 Clipston Station 78-3/4 Oxendon 79-1/4 (Cross River Welland.) Market Harborough 82 (Cross Union Canal.) Kibworth 87-3/4 Great Glen 90-3/4 Oadby 93 Leicester 96-3/4 Belgrave 98-1/2 (Cross River Soar.) Mountsorrel 103-3/4 Quorndon 105-1/4 Loughborough (âBullâs Headâ) 107-3/4 Dishley 109-3/4 Hathern 110-1/2 Kegworth 113-3/4 Cavendish Bridge 117-1/4 (Cross River Trent.) Shardlow 117-3/4 Alvaston 121-3/4 Osmaston 122-3/4 (Cross Derby Canal.) Derby (Market Place) 124-3/4 Mackworth 127-1/4 Kirk Langley 129 Brailsford 131-1/2 Ashbourne 137-3/4 Hanging Bridge 139-1/4 (Cross River Dove.) Swinescote 140-3/4 Milk Hill Gate 144-1/4 Waterhouses 145 Winkhill 146-3/4 Bottom Inn (âGreen Manâ) 148 Bradnop 150-3/4 Low Hill 151-1/2 Leek (Market Place) 152-1/2 Pool End 154-1/4 Rushton Marsh 157-1/2 (Cross River Dane.) Bosley 160 Macclesfield 165-1/2 Titherington 166 Flash 167-3/4 Hope Green 171-3/4 Poynton 172-1/2 Hazel Grove 174-3/4 Stockport 177-1/2 (Cross River Mersey.) Heaton Norris 179 Heaton Chapel 179-3/4 Levenshulme 180-1/2 Grindley Marsh 181-1/2 Longsight 182 Ardwick Green 183-1/4 (Cross Manchester and Ashton-under-Lyne Canal.) Manchester (St. Annâs Square) 184-3/4 [Illustration: LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS] SEPARATE PLATES THE MAIL CHANGE (_By J. Herring_) _Frontispiece_ PAGE THE GLASGOW MAIL, ABOUT 1830 (_After J. Pollard_) 7 THE GLASGOW MAIL LEAVING THE YARD OF THE âBULL AND MOUTHâ (_After C. Cooper Henderson_) 17 THE âCOURIER,â MANCHESTER, CARLISLE AND GLASGOW COACH (_After C. B. Newhouse_) 27 MAILS LEAVING THE YARD OF THE âSWAN WITH TWO NECKS,â 1834 (_After J. Pollard_) 35 THE âMANCHESTER TELEGRAPH,â 1834 (_After Robert Havell_) 39 ISLINGTON GREEN, 1825 113 THE MANCHESTER MAIL CHANGING HORSES AT THE âOLD WHITE LION,â FINCHLEY, 1835 (_After James Pollard_) 117 QUEEN ELEANOR CROSS (_From a photograph taken before the restoration of 1884_) 181 NORTHAMPTON: MARKET PLACE AND ALL SAINTSâ CHURCH 191 MARKET HARBOROUGH 213 MOUNTSORREL 249 THE CHASE AND THE ROAD (_After H. Atken_) 255 STAGE-COACH TRAVELLING, 1828 (DERBY AND SHEFFIELD) (_After J. Pollard_) 295 CHURCH STREET, ASHBOURNE 313 THE MANCHESTER MAILS PASSING ONE ANOTHER NEAR ASHBOURNE (_After J. Pollard_) 327 MACCLESFIELD, FROM THE ROAD TO STOCKPORT 343 ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT Monken Hadley Church 120 The Fire-Pot, Monken Hadley 122 The Gateway, Dyrham Park 124 The âFleur-de-Lisâ 127 Relics of the Saxon Church in the North Transept, St. Albans 131 Lord Grimthorpe 138 Shrine of St. Alban and Tomb of Duke Humphrey 141 Gorhambury 151 Markyate Cell 153 Woburn Abbey 161 Woburn 163 Newport Pagnell 167 Lathbury Church 170 Gayhurst 172 The âGeorge and Dragon,â Eakley Lane 173 Horton Inn 175 Piddington Church 177 Interior, Church of the Holy Sepulchre 195 Brixworth Church 201 Lamport Church 205 Paxton 208 Monument to Judge Nichols 209 St. Nicholas and the Roman Wall 225 The Roman Milestone 227 St. Margaretâs 231 Trinity Hospital Porridge-Pot 234 St. Maryâs 235 In the Courtyard, the Old Town Hall 241 Church and Cavern, Woodhouse Eaves 253 From the Monument to John Farnham 258 Gotham 265 The Causeway, Swarkestone Bridge 268 Swarkestone Bridge 273 âThe Balcony,â Swarkestone 277 Cavendish Bridge 280 The Trent, and Cavendish Bridge, from Shardlow 282 Elvaston Castle 285 Courtyard of the âBellâ Inn 291 âYoung Men and Maidensâ 299 All Saintsâ 301 St. Alkmundâs 303 St. Maryâs Bridge 305 Penelope Boothbyâs Monument 316 The âGreen Man and Blackâs Head,â Ashbourne 322 Hanging Bridge 325 Swinscoe 330 Waterhouses 331 Bottom Inn: The âGreen Manâ 332 Leek 334 Prestbury 345 The âVillage of Hazel Groveâ 351 Old Town House of the Ardernes, Stockport 356 [Illustration: The Manchester and Glasgow Road] I Beyond any possible doubt, there is more historyâand more varied historyâto the mile, along the lengthy road from London to Glasgow than on any other highway in this historic England of ours; with the sole possible exception of the road to Dover. The Great North Road itself is romantically historic, and there are 389 miles of it, but it is not so compact of historic and domestic incident as the Manchester and Glasgow Roadâand it is not quite so long. The difference, to be sure, is triflingâmerely a matter of 11-1/4 milesâbut the long miles to Manchester, and on to Glasgow, are more plentifully set with towns and villages than the Great North Road, which, upon the whole, takes an austere and aloof course; and there is a wealth of detail on the way that presents at times an embarrassing choice for the historian. The Manchester and Glasgow Road, according to the best modern authorities, measures from the General Post Office, London, to the Royal Exchange, Glasgow, 400-1/4 miles. Before Telford in 1816, under authority of the Government of that day, took the Carlisle and Glasgow division of it in hand, and eventually shortened it by various engineering expedients, the whole distance was 409-1/4 miles. There is not the slightest hesitancy to be entertained about the course of this great road. It suited the Post Office in the old mail-coach days to send the mails along the Great North Road to Boroughbridge, and thence across country to Penrith, and so forward to Glasgow, and the contractors made the distance only 397-3/4 miles; but the route was that adopted here; through St. Albans, the historic towns of Northampton, Leicester, and Derby, Manchester, Preston, Lancaster, and Carlisle. The mere names of those places conjure up many a scene in the stirring annals of the nation, and suggest crowded incidents in the scarcely less interesting story of industrial progress; while the scenery along the road is in many districts of a high order of beauty, ranging between such extremes as the quiet pastoral country beyond St. Albans, through Northamptonshire and Leicestershire, to the wild moors of Staffordshire, the solemn beauty of Lancaster and Solway Sands, the stark heights of Shap Fell, and the bleak moors between Moffat and Douglas Mill. [Sidenote: _THE FIRST GLASGOW COACH_] The first stages of the road are common to the Great North Road and the Holyhead Road. At Hadley Green, beyond Barnet, we bid good-bye to the first, and at Hockliffe, 37-1/2 miles from our starting-point, we branch off to the right from the second of those great highways. II Through communication between London and Glasgow was undreamed of in the earliest days of coaching; and never, in the very nature of things, was the journey often made without a break, until railway travelling came to entirely alter the complexion of affairs. But Glasgow was early convinced of the necessity for public conveyances between itself and other parts; and at so remote a date as 1678 had succeeded in establishing what would appear to have been a municipally supported coach service between Glasgow and Edinburgh. This coach was maintained by William Hoorn, Hoon, or Hume, âmarchand in Edinburge,â who received a grant of Â£22 4_s._ 5_d._, and an annual subsidy of Â£11 2_s._ 3_d._, paid two years in advance, and for a term of five-and-a-half years, from the magistrates. The fare was 8_s._ in summer, and 9_s._ in winter; the burgesses of Glasgow to have the preference. It set forth once a week, and by dint of much labour its six horses dragged it the 44 miles in three days. How long a time this daring service lasted is not known, but probably not for any extended period. Again, in 1743, the Town Council of Glasgow is found attempting to set up a stage-coach or âlando,â to go once a week in winter and twice in summer. Negotiations were opened with one John Walker, and the fare proposed was 10_s._; but it was not until 1749 that regular communication between Glasgow and Edinburgh was established. Meanwhile there was nothing in the nature of a coach service between Glasgow and London. To reach the metropolis by public conveyance, you were obliged to go first by this rate-aided conveyance of Mr. William Hume, and then, arrived at Edinburgh, to secure a seat for the tremendous journey southward. It is no mere figure of speech to name that early coach-journey to London âtremendousâ; for it took, according to circumstances and the season of the year, from nine to twelve days. The enterprise of Glasgow, it will thus be perceived, was not equal to so great an undertaking. At a time when the able-bodiedâwho, after all, were the only people who could endure this kind of thingâwere the only people who travelled, except under the extremest pressure of necessity, a horseman would ride the distance in six or seven days, and the postboys who carried the mails before the establishment of mail-coaches commonly did it in five; and so, possibly, those enterprising Glasgow town-councilmen considered there was no necessity at that period to support a coach to London. [Sidenote: _STAGE AND MAIL TO GLASGOW_] It was thus comparatively late in the history of coaching that Glasgow and London were connected by a direct coach service, but London and Carlisle Post Coaches were announced, going by Boroughbridge, and starting from December 26th, 1773. They travelled between the âGeorge and Blue Boar,â Holborn, and the âBush,â Carlisle; setting out from London on Wednesday evenings, and from Carlisle on Sunday evenings, and performing the journey in three days. They held six inside passengers, and two outsides; and the fares were, inside, Â£3 16_s._, and out, Â£2 6_s._ Passengers taken up on the road paid from twopence to threepence per mile. Dogs were strictly forbidden, under a penalty of Â£5. It is not until 1788 that we learn of âPlummerâs Glasgow and London Coach,â which travelled the distance in sixty-five hours. In the same year, on July 7th, the first mail-coach arrived at Glasgow from London, after a journey of sixty-six hours; at a speed averaging about 6 miles an hour. Its route was along the Great North Road, so far as Boroughbridge, whence it continued by Leeming Lane, Catterick, Greta Bridge, and Brough, on to the Manchester and Glasgow Road at Penrith. Arrived at Carlisle, it halted, and a second coach took up the running to Glasgow. In the era of mails carried on horseback, thus brought to an end, Glasgow had received and despatched its London post through Edinburgh, at second-hand, as it were, and this newly won independence wrested from the rival city was greeted with becoming enthusiasm, crowds of rejoicing citizens riding out to view the coming of the mail, and to escort it to its destination. What the mail looked like in the first twelve years or so of its existence we perceive in the illustration after James Pollard, on the opposite page; although we may be quite sure that the coach never in its slowest time progressed in the slow and stately fashionâresembling the mournful deliberation of a funeralâpictured here. This is merely the early Pollard convention, seen in many of his productions. The first Glasgow mail was by no means direct, and between Boroughbridge and Penrith it passed over wild and difficult country, so that it often did not succeed in keeping time. But, in spite of these difficulties, this route was keptâvaried only by occasional divagations taking in Leeds and Riponâuntil 1835, and, owing to road improvements between London and Doncaster, a number of accelerations were even possible. [Illustration: THE GLASGOW MAIL, ABOUT 1800. [_After J. Pollard._ ] It must have been at an early period of these revisions of the time-table that Professor John Wilson, the athletic âChristopher North,â accomplished the walking exploit credited to him. Disappointed at not securing a place on the up mail from Penrith to Kendal, he gave his coat to the coachman and set off to walk the 26 miles, arriving at Kendal some time before the coach. He then walked on to his home at Elleray. [Sidenote: _ACCELERATIONS_] When that fine old sportsman, Colonel Hawker, travelled from London to Glasgow in 1812, the journey occupied close upon fifty-seven hours of continuous unrelaxing effort on the part of the many relays of coachmen, guards, and horses, and of passive fortitude on that of the travellers, who, after all, had the worst of it; for while horses, guards, and coachmen were changed frequently on the way, and passed like fleeting ghosts before their wearied vision, they endured to the bitter end. Well for those who were obliged to go through at one sitting, if it were summer when these three nights and two days of discomfort were being endured; but the stoutest might have quailed before the prospect of such a journey in winter. In 1821 the coach arrived at Carlisle in what was considered the excellent time of 41 hours 40 minutes from London, a speed, for the 311 miles, of something under 7-3/4 miles an hour. But still it was only at 1.40 on the afternoon of the third day that the mail entered Carlisle; reaching Glasgow at 4.50 the next morning. Time, from London to Glasgow, 56 hours 50 minutes. By 1825, however, a further acceleration was made. The mail came dashing into Carlisle at 6.7 a.m.; so much as 7 hours 33 minutes earlier. People held up their hands in astonishment, and were of opinion that wonders would never cease: a frame of mind fully shared by the Glasgow folk, who with satisfaction ill-concealed by natural Scottish calm, saw the mail draw up at the Post Office proportionately early. They were absolutely correct: wonders did _not_ cease; for in 1837 a further saving of 1 hour 50 minutes was effected to Carlisle, the mail-coach arriving at 4.17 a.m. on the second morning from London, time, 32 hours 17 minutes; and drawing up at Glasgow at two oâclock that same afternoon: forty-two hours for the entire journey. This truly astonishing advance upon early performances was only made possible by the long series of improvements effected on the road between Carlisle and Glasgow from 1798 to 1834, by which not only had the gradients and the surface been improved, but newer and shorter stretches of road had been struck out, reducing the actual mileage from 405 miles to 397 miles 6 furlongs.[1] The mail at this final period was not, throughout, one of the crack coaches run under the direction of the Post Office; coming only thirteenth in the list for speed, and showing a performance of an average 9Â·34 miles per hour as compared with that of the swift Bristol mail, speeding along the road at 10Â·3, almost a mile an hour quicker. Analysed, however, it discloses for the 95 miles along Telfordâs splendid Carlisle and Glasgow Road an even slightly higher speed than that of the Bristol mail itself; and there were for many years after the disappearance of the coaches admiring oldsters who recollected with an admiration not unmixed with terror the terrific speed of the up Glasgow mail as it tore down the side of Stanwix Brow, outside Carlisle. [Sidenote: _THE MAILS_] The accompanying official time-bills of the London and Carlisle and the Carlisle and Glasgow mails, as run in 1837, will prove interesting: GENERAL POST OFFICE-THE EARL OF LICHFIELD. HER MAJESTYâs POSTMASTER-GENERAL. _Time Bill, London and Carlisle Mail._ +------------+---------+--------+-------------------------------------+ |Contractorsâ| Miles | Time | | | Names. | and |allowed.| | | |furlongs.| | | +------------+---------+--------+-------------------------------------+ | | | |Despatched from the General Post | | | | | Office the of 183 , at 8 p.m.| | | | | |Coach No. sent out. | | | | | | | | | H. M. | | | | | |With timepiece safe No. | | | | |to . | |Sherman | 11 2 | 1 18 |Arrived at Barnet, 9.18 | | | 8 4 | |Hatfield. | | | 5 4 | 1 28 |Arrived at Welwyn, 10.46. | | | | | | |W. & G. | 6 3 | |Stevenage. | | Wright | 5 7 | 1 20 |Arrived at Baldock, 12.6. | | | 7 5 | |Biggleswade. | | | 1 4 | 0 56 |Arrived at Caldecot, 1.2 a.m. | | | 8 4 | 0 53 |Arrived at Eaton Socon, 1.55. | | | | | | |Arnold | 5 4 | |Buckden. | | | 5 1 | 1 4 |Arrived at Alconbury, 2.59. | | | | | | |Coveney | 9 2 | 0 57 |Arrived at Stilton, 3.56. | | | | | | |T. Whincup | 8 5 | |Wansford. | | | 6 0 | 1 32 |Arrived at Stamford, 5.28. | | | | | | |H. Whincup | 8 0 | 0 50 |Arrived at Stretton, 6.18. | | | | | | |Burbidge | 5 1 | |Colsterworth. | | | 8 1 | 1 22 |Arrived at Grantham, 7.40. | | | | | by timepiece, by clock. | | | | | | | | | |Coach No. gone forward. | | | | | | | | | |Delivered the time-piece | | | | |safe, No. to . | | | | 0 40 |Forty minutes allowed. | | | 6 0 | 0 36 |Arrived at Foston, 8.56. | | | | | | |Lawton | 8 0 | 0 48 |Arrived at Newark, 9.44. | | | 13 1 | 1 19 |Arrived at Ollerton, 11.3. | | | | | | |Lister | 8 4 | 0 49 |Arrived at Worksop, 11.52. | | | | | | |Dawson | 8 3 | 0 48 |Arrived at Bagley, 12.40. | | | 4 1 | 0 23 |Arrived at Wadsworth, 1.3 p.m. | | | | | | |Dunhill | 4 1 | 0 23 |Arrived at Doncaster, 1.26. | | | | | | |Outhwaite | 14 3 | 1 27 |Arrived at Pontefract, 2.53. | | | 10 0 | 0 59 |Arrived at Aberford, 3.52. | | | | | | |Cleminshaw | 7 4 | 0 44 |Arrived at Wetherby, 4.36. | | | | | | | | | |Coach No. gone | | | | | forward. | | | | | By timepiece | | | | | at ; by | | | | | clock ; | | | | | off at , | | | | | by timepiece. | | | | 0 35 |Thirty-five minutes allowed. | | | 12 1 | 1 12 |Arrived at Boroughbridge, 6.23. | | | | | | |Cook | 12 1 | 1 12 |Arrived at Leeming Lane, 7.35. | | | | | | |Couldwell | 11 0 | 1 6 |Arrived at Catterick Bridge, 8.41. | | | | | | |Fryer | 9 0 | 0 54 |Arrived at Foxhall, 9.35. | | | | | | |Martin | 4 4 | 0 27 |Arrived at New Inn, | | | | | Greta Bridge, 10.2. | | | 10 0 | 1 8 |Arrived at New Spital, 11.10. | | | 9 4 | 1 5 |Arrived at Brough, 12.15. | | | | | | |Fryer | 8 0 | 0 52 |Arrived at Appleby, 1.7 a.m. | | | | | | |Doulim | 13 4 | 1 21 |Arrived at Penrith, 2.28. | | | | | | |Teather | 9 3 | 0 55 |Arrived at Hesketh, 3.23. | | | | | | |Barton | 8 6 | 0 54 |Arrived at the Post Office, | | | | | Carlisle, the of , | | | | | 183 , at 4.17 a.m. | | | | | Coach No. arrived. | | +---------+--------+ By timepiece ; by | | |302 7 | 32 17 | clock . | +------------+---------+--------+-------------------------------------+ _Time Bill, Carlisle and Glasgow Mail._ +------------+---------+--------+-------------------------------------+ |Contractorsâ| Miles | Time | | | Names. | and |allowed.| | | |furlongs.| | | +------------+---------+--------+-------------------------------------+ | | | |Despatched from the Post | | | | | Office, Carlisle, the of , | | | | | 183 , at 5. a.m. by timepiece; | | | | | by clock, . | | | | |London Mail arrived 4.17 a.m. | | | | |Manchester Mail arrived 4.48 a.m. | | | | |Coach No. sent out. | | | | |With timepiece safe, | | | | | No. ; to . | | | | H. M. | | |Teather, | 9 6 | 0 55 |Arrived at Gretna, 5.55. | | junr. | | | | | | | | | |Burn & Paton| 9 2 | 0 53 |Arrived at Ecclefechan, 6.48. | | | 5 6 | |Lockerbie. | | | 5 0 | 1 1 |Arrived at Dinwoodie Green, 7.49. | | | | | | |Wilson | 9 3 | 0 53 |Arrived at Beattock Bridge Inn, 8.42.| | | | | Bags dropped for Moffat. | | | | |Toll Bar. Bags dropped for Leadhills.| | | 14 0 | 1 44 |Arrived at Abington, 10.26. | | | 4 3 | | | | | | | | |Burn & Paton| 9 0 | 0 52 |Arrived at Douglas Mill, 11.18. Bags | | | | | dropped for Lesmahago. | | | 6 0 | 0 46 |Arrived at Knowknack, 12.4. | | | 2 0 | | | | | 9 3 | 0 53 |Arrived at Hamilton, 12.57. | | | 11 0 | 1 3 |Arrived at the Post Office, Glasgow, | | | | | the of , 183 , at 2 p.m. by| | | | | timepiece; at by clock. | | | | |Coach No. arrived | | | | |Delivered the timepiece safe, | | | | | No. , to . | | +---------+--------+ | | | 94 7 | 9 0 | | +------------+---------+--------+-------------------------------------+ In their last years, however, the Carlisle and Glasgow and the Carlisle and Edinburgh mails were run to clear 11 miles an hour: the time between Carlisle and Glasgow being cut down to 8 hours 32 minutes. Cautious folk steered clear of such performances, for accidents were frequent. But it was not speed that caused the dreadful accident to the up Manchester mail from Carlisle, overturned at Penrith on September 25th, 1835. The coach was passing the âGreyhoundâ inn when the horses, startled by a sudden thunderstorm, upset the coach. A gentleman on the roof was killed, and three other outsiders and the coachman were stunned. But this was not the full measure of the Glasgow mails. The London and Manchester mail, once proceeding no further than Manchester, was extended by a second coach to Carlisle. This and the regular old Glasgow mail were in later years timed to meet at Penrith at four oâclock in the morning, and went on together to Carlisle. Carlisle was thus a busy centre for the mails, and in addition sent out, besides its local coaches and a mail for Edinburgh, a four-horse mail-coach for Portpatrick, carrying the mails for the north of Ireland. This also went along the main road so far as Gretna, whence it branched for Dumfries; continuing from that town to Portpatrick as a two-horse affair. The cost of being conveyed by mail-coach from London to Glasgow was enormous. It is possible to voyage in these days to America, a distance of 3,000 miles, for less. In 1812 it cost an inside passenger, all the way to Glasgow, for fare alone, apart from the necessary tips to coachmen and guards, and exclusive of expenditure for food and drink all those weary hours, no less than Â£10 8_s._: at the rate of about 6-1/8_d._ a mile. To-day, the fastest train takes exactly eight hours, and the first-class fare, answering to the mail-coach fare, is Â£2 18_s._; while one may travel, third class, in greater luxury than the old passengers by mail, for 33_s._ [Sidenote: _DISCOMFORTS OF TRAVELLING_] III No one ever in coaching days thought it worth while to write the story of the Glasgow mail. The hard, dry facts of it may be sought, and with some diligence found and collated, in Parliamentary Papers, and in the pages of Cary, or in the coaching information common to directories of that age; but intimate accounts are sought in vain. Travellers who experienced the miseries of long-distance journeys were only too glad to be done with them, and to dismiss the memory of their sufferings. To have passed nearly forty-two hours continuously on the roof of a coach in severe weather, with every hair standing up like a porcupineâs quills, and with rain, dew, and hoar-frost as oneâs dreary portion, forbade all that glamour with which that old era is regarded at this convenient distance of time. Those who could endure such a journey without a break were few; and to those few, obliged from any cause to hasten from end to end, the recollection must have seemed a veritable phantasmagoria of dimly shifting scenes and aching, weary limbs. [Illustration: THE GLASGOW MAIL LEAVING THE YARD OF THE âBULL AND MOUTH.â [_After C. Cooper Henderson._ ] Thus it is that we obtain only brief and disconnected glimpses of the mailâs progress. The most eloquent picture of misery is undoubtedly that presented by Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, writing in November 1800, describing a journey from Carlisle to London: âAfter passing a sleepless night at Carlisle, I was hurried away next morning without a morsel of breakfast, and grew so very sick and ill in a little while that I had almost fainted twice. When we stopt at Penrith and took up an old gentleman, I then got a large dram of gin, which did me much service; and we proceeded through snow and ice far and far, and farther than I can tell, till I fell asleep and got a much better nightâs rest than at that accursed Carlisle. During the night (but Heaven knows where) we picked up two men going to London; and, lo! about daylight another qualm seized me. And when we got to Stilton, it blew such a hideous storm, with hail, snow, and wind, that for an hour and twenty minutes the six horses would not move forward, but attempted always to retreat to the stables. Such kicking, such rearing of beasts, such cursing and swearing of men (who had a stronger smack of the big brute in them than even their cattle), I never met with before; and after every cudgel in the houseâyea, even my landladyâs private stick wherewith she corrects her spouseâhad been bent or broken over their backs, they got on so slowly that we reached London only at eight in the morning. Here was no peace for the wicked. The âBull and Mouth,â which is the filthiest place you ever saw, gave me such an aversion to remaining where I was, that I took a place in the heavy coach which went on at one that day, and lay down on a bed till the time for departure. Here my head grew very bad indeed, so that I slept not a wink.â [Sidenote: _AN AFFECTED TRAVELLER_] âStinking, noisy stye,â he elsewhere calls the âBull and Mouth,â but we must recollect that Sharpe was very affected, a bundle of fine feelings, and a _poseur_: one, in short, born a hundred years before his time, and by no means one of those robust Englishmen to whom noise and stable-smells were but the ordinary and commonplace incidents of coach-journeys and coaching hostelries. Nothing, you clearly perceive, could have roused Sharpe to enthusiasm. But there were some wildly enthusiastic people on the road then, and they had often cause, in the stirring news they brought with them, to feel exultation of spirits. For with the mail came news of the Battles of the Nile, of Trafalgar, of Waterloo; and many a wayside park was despoiled of laurel branches to deck out the coach in the emblems of victory. Many a time did the mail enter Glasgow in that fashion: decorated with the bays, a red flag flying from the roof, the guard in his best scarlet coat and gold-laced hat, sounding his bugle as the horses galloped at a thundering pace along the Gallowgate. Arrived at the foot of Nelson Street, at about seven oâclock in the morning, his duty was, on these historic occasions, to thrice discharge his blunderbuss in the air. Every one then rushed to the âTontineâ coffee-room to learn the news and get the papers: some one with a stentorian voice being generally elected to read the despatches aloud, for the common benefit. A thrilling story of those old days, when we were generally at war with France, is that of one Archibald Campbell, a Glasgow merchant who had omitted to insure one of his ships, and, in the last few weeks before she fell due, repented of his omission. Alarmed, he sought to effect insurance with a Glasgow office, but found the premium so high that he resolved to insure ship and cargo in London. Accordingly, he wrote to his London broker, instructing him to insure on the best terms possible. The letter was posted and left by the up mail-coach at 2 p.m. At seven oâclock that night he received an express from Greenock, announcing the safe arrival of his ship, and instantly despatched his head clerk in pursuit of the coach, with instructions to overtake it if possible, or, if he could not do so, to proceed to London and deliver a note to the broker, countermanding the insurance. But, in spite of making every effort to urge on the postillions, the clerk was unable to overtake the mail, with its five hoursâ start. He arrived in London shortly after, and proceeded, early in the morning, to the residence of the broker, before the morning delivery, and thus countermanded the order; with the result that an insurance which would have cost Â£1,500 was saved at the expense of Â£100. [Sidenote: _FASTER THAN THE MAIL_] Such were the incidents that accompanied the mail on its long journey; but they had already faded from general knowledge, and were treasured chiefly in the memories of a few oldsters, when its last days were come, in February 1848. They had been âpiping times of peaceâ ever since the echoes of Waterloo had died away, in 1815; and for two reasons the news of great issues was no longer brought by the mail. Firstly, because great national events had become more rare; and secondly, because when there was especially momentous intelligence, enterprising folks, travelling even faster than the mail-coach, and setting out at any hour they chose, had stolen away the prime position of that old-time national intelligencer. For example, when at length the great Reform Bill passed the House of Lords, after a long period of hazardous political agitation, at 6.35 in the morning of Saturday, April 14th, 1832, a Mr. Young, of _The Sun_ newspaper, left the Strand sixty-five minutes later in a post-chaise and four, with copies of _The Sun_ he had caused to be printed between 6.30 and 7.30, containing a report of the debate and division, and travelled literally âpost-hasteâ to Glasgow. At 7.30 p.m. on the next day, Sunday, he alighted at the house of his agent, Thomas Atkinson, Miller Street, Glasgow, having performed the journey in 35 hours 50 minutes: a speed, including stoppages for changing horses, of 11-1/4 miles an hour throughout. There were, it would appear, others on the road on this occasion, similarly engaged, for John Bright spoke in after years of having travelled up from Manchester to London at the time, by the âPeveril of the Peak,â and of having, in common with the other passengers, âobserved something coming towards us. We saw horses galloping, and carriages coming at great speed. By-and-by we saw two chaises with four horses, each chaise with two or three men inside. They were throwing out parcels from each window as they went past, galloping as fast as it was possible for horses to travel. These were express chaises, coming from London, bringing the news to all the people of the countryâfor there were then no telegraphs and no railwaysâof the glorious triumph of popular principles, even in the House of Lords, for that House had sat all night, and it was not until the morning that the House divided and the second reading of that great measure was carried by a majority of nine votes.â Men thought the millennium was come, but events have proved that it had not; and, according to latest advices, it has not been signalled, even yet. IV [Sidenote: _THE âFLYING COACHâ_] Manchester, less than half the way to Glasgow, was in later years very abundantly supplied with coaches from London; but London and Manchester were not in direct communication by coach until 1754; and had London been left to establish a line of coaches to Manchester, the date would no doubt have been much later. Indeed, it is to be noted that, almost without exception, the earlier coaches between London and the provinces were established by provincials seeking to reach London. The metropolis was always magnificently indifferent; but when the provincial manufacturing towns began to arise, the manufacturers, seeking business with that greatest of markets, and finding nothing for it but to ride horseback to and from London, speedily set up coach services. Thus it was that the first coach ever to run between Manchester and London was established by an association of Manchester men. This was the âFlying Coachâ of 1754, which was announced with the statement that âHowever incredible it may appear, this coach will actually (barring accidents) arrive in London in four days and a half after leaving Manchester.â Really and truly! as the children say. Here we smile; but those eighteenth-century projectors manifestly took things very seriously, as they had every reason to do; and doubtless considered the establishment of this flier a wonderful achievement. Six years later, in 1760, Messrs. Handforth, Howe, Glanville & Richardsonâs coach is found performing the journey in three days âor thereaboutsâ; and in 1770 the âLondon Flying Machine,â by Samuel Tennant, began to wing its way every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday in summer, in two days, from the âRoyal Oak,â Market Street. It set out in summer at the shocking hour of one oâclock in the morning, but conceded 4 a.m. in the winter months; when, however, it required another whole day for the journey. The earlier coaches seem to have been discontinued, for Tennantâs âFlying Machineâ was in 1770 the only one between London and Manchester; but for the less moneyed and more leisured classes whose time was of small value, and expedition was therefore of little moment, there were Matthew Pickfordâs stage-waggons (âFlying Waggonsâ he called them), which, generally at a penny a mile, conveyed passengers and goods between London and Manchester in four and a half days. They went from the âSwan,â Market Street Lane, on Wednesdays and Saturdays; but had several rivals: notably Bassâs waggons, on Fridays, from the âFountainâ; Cooperâs, from the âStar,â Deansgate, on Wednesdays and Saturdays; Hulseâs, from the âWindmill,â on the same days; Washingtonâs, from the âPack Horse,â Mill Street Lane, Tuesdays; and Woodâs, from the âCoach and Horses,â Deansgate, Wednesdays and Saturdays. [Sidenote: _THE MANCHESTER MAIL_] In 1776-7, serious competition began for the coaching traffic between London and Manchester, two rival concernsâthe âLondon New and Elegant Diligenceâ and the âNew Diligenceââeach setting out from Manchester three times a week and taking only two days to perform the journey. The âNew and Elegantâ competitor set out from the âUpper Royal Oakâ inn, Market Street Lane, and went by Macclesfield and Derby. Its complement was thirteen passengers, who were allowed 14 lb of luggage each, free; and the fare was Â£2 6_s._ or 3_d._ a mile. Among the proprietors of this coach occurs the name of Pickford. The âNew Diligenceâ (which appears to have been established before its âNew and Elegantâ fellow) went by way of Matlock and Derby. The next great event was the establishment of the Manchester mail, in 1785. It left the yard of the âSwan with Two Necks,â in Lad Lane, every weekday evening at 7.30 p.m., and the General Post Office half an hour later, and came to H. C. Lacyâs âBridgewater Arms,â Manchester, at 6 p.m. the next day. Time, 22 hours; a speed of close upon 8-1/2 miles an hour. At its best period, from 1825 to the end, in 1837, it accomplished the journey in exactly 19 hours, at the average speed of 9Â·66 miles per hour. Meanwhile, during the fifty-two years that witnessed the whole career of the mail-coach, down to its final run, stage-coaching along the road to Manchester was utterly revolutionised. Rivalry and competition, as fierce as that on any road, brought the coaches to such a degree of perfection that for comfortable travel, as then understood, it was ahead of all other routes; and to such a turn of speed that it was equal to the best for rapid transit. During all this period, the districts north of Manchester were more or less beyond the ken of the London stage-coach proprietors, to whom the comparatively lean traffic of the road on to Lancaster, Carlisle, and Glasgow offered no great inducements for through bookings. Moreover, Manchester and Carlisle were themselves great coaching centres, whose coach proprietors were very well able to work by themselves and take such long-distance competition at a disadvantage. From the âBridgewater Arms,â High Street, Manchester, went numbers of branch mails; from the âStarâ inn, Deansgate, and the âMosley Arms,â Market Place, went a long list of stage-coaches to Lancaster, Kendal, Carlisle, and Glasgow, as well as others along the important cross-roads; while from the âSwanâ inn, the âFlying Horse,â the âPalaceâ inn, and the âTalbot,â Market Street; the âGolden Lionâ and âBush,â Deansgate; âLower Turkâs Head,â Shude Hill; âBuck,â Hanging Ditch; âBoarâs Head,â Hydeâs Cross, and others a swarm of short-distance coaches set out. [Illustration: THE âCOURIER,â MANCHESTER, CARLISLE, AND GLASGOW COACH. [_After C. B. Newhouse._ ] The chief mail contractor at Manchester in the early days of coaching was Alexander Paterson, who removed from the âLower Swanâ inn, Market Street Lane, to the âBridgewater Armsâ in 1788. He was succeeded by H. C. Lacy, who in 1827 removed to what had until then been a private mansion at the corner of Market Street and Mosley Street, and opened it as the âRoyal Hotel and New Bridgewater Arms.â The older inn has long since been converted into warehouses, occupied at the present time by Messrs. Woodhouse, Hambly & Co. [Sidenote: _THE DAY COACHES_] Among the few stage-coaches advertised to run through the whole distance from London to Manchester and Glasgow was the âCourier,â which was started in later years and ran until the opening of the railway. It set out from the âBelle Sauvage,â Ludgate Hill, and from the âCastle and Falcon,â Aldersgate Street, every weekday at 3 p.m., and connected by a branch coach at Carlisle with Edinburgh. V Strange portents were seen upon the road to Manchester in the early years of last century. About 1824 began the era of the fast day coaches, and fine vehicles, handsome horses, and decent harness were provided for the travelling public, instead of the springless tubs, wretched cattle, and harness composed chiefly of odd pieces of worn leather eked out with string, which made up the uncomfortable old night coaches. It was a new era in more than one sense, for this was that now historic period when horseless vehicles were first put upon the public roads. The âtwenties of the nineteenth century were almost as remarkable for those early horseless vehicles, the steam carriages, as the present era is for petrol-driven and electric motor-cars. Railways, too, began early to threaten stage-and mail-coaching; and
{'title': 'The Manchester and Glasgow Road, Volume 1 (of 2) by Charles G. Harper', 'source': 'Project Gutenberg', 'lang': 'en'}