Coaching, with Anecdotes of the RoadLennox, William Pitt, Lord
History
Coaching, with Anecdotes of the Road
Lennox, William Pitt, Lord
Coaching (Transportation)
On the 13th an accident happened to the "Red Rover," Manchester and
London coach. When it arrived at Stone, about twelve o'clock at
night, it had ten outside passengers and one inside. It stopped as
usual at the "Falcon Inn" to change horses. When the fresh horses
were put to, eight of the outside passengers had resumed their seats,
the gentleman inside retaining his place. The coachman and guard were
one of them in the yard, and the other in the kitchen of the inn. The
horses started off, turned the sharp corner of the road leading to
Stafford, and proceeded at a moderate pace. The outside passengers,
on perceiving their situation, began to jump off the coach, and by
the time the coach had proceeded a quarter of a mile on the road
every outside passenger had quitted it. In their falls they all
received injuries more or less severe.
After the outside passengers had left the "Red Rover," the horses
still pursued their course, and when the Birmingham and Liverpool
Mail met them near Ashton they were going at a comparatively steady
pace. The "Beehive" afterwards met them near the turnpike gate,
at which they were on the full gallop. They avoided, however, any
collision with the "Beehive," as they had previously done with the
mail.
On arriving at Tillington, about a mile from Stafford, the coach was
upset. The gentleman inside, having early learned the situation in
which he was placed, took his seat on the floor of the coach, and did
not stir during the whole time; the consequence was that he escaped
without the slightest injury.
In August, 1839, on the arrival of the Falmouth Mail at Bodmin, many
persons, as is usual at the assizes, were waiting to proceed by it
to Exeter, and four inside and three outside passengers were taken
up there. The coach was driven by a man who was not the regular
coachman, but was considered to be an experienced and sober man. The
guard was a young man who had been but recently placed upon that
station, and was not very well accustomed to the road.
After proceeding a short distance the passengers perceived that the
driver was very much intoxicated, and they insisted that he should
not drive the coach further; accordingly the guard took the reins,
and the coachman took his seat behind.
Shortly before reaching the "Jamaica Inn," situate on Bodmin Moors,
and ten miles from that town, there is a very steep descent, with
a sharp turn at the bottom of the hill, and then a steep ascent up
to the inn, where the coach changes horses, and its proper time of
arrival was about twelve o'clock. The people at the public-house were
alarmed by several horses galloping up to the door and then stopping,
and upon going out they discovered they were the mail horses, but
with scarcely any harness upon them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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