The improvement was by no means universal, however. Arthur Young[23] writes:— “I know not in the whole range of language terms sufficiently expressive to describe this infernal road. To look over a map, and perceive that it is a principal one, not only to some towns, but even whole counties, one would naturally conclude it to be at least decent; but let me most seriously caution all travellers who may accidentally purpose to travel this terrible country, to avoid it as they would the devil, for a thousand to one but they break their necks or their limbs by overthrows or breakings down. They will here meet with ruts, which I actually measured, four feet deep, and floating with mud, only from a wet summer; what, therefore, must it be after the winter? The only mending it receives, in places, is the tumbling in loose stones, which serve no other purpose but jolting the carriage in a most intolerable manner. These are not merely opinions, but facts, for I actually passed three carts broken down in these eighteen miles of execrable memory.” [23] _Tour in the North of England._ London, 1770. IMPROVEMENTS IN STAGE COACHES. The last twenty-five years of the eighteenth century saw great increase of the coaching industry and many important improvements. The “long stages” were still slow; the _Edinburgh Courant_, of 1779, contains an advertisement of the London Coach which “will run every Tuesday, occupying ten days, resting all Sunday at Barrowbridge; for the better accommodation of passengers will be altered to a new genteel two-end coach machine hung upon steel springs, exceeding light and easy.” At this period the newspapers often contained advertisements inviting a companion to share with the advertiser the risks and expenses of posting to London. It was no doubt the love of Englishmen for privacy which led a Mr. Crispus Claggett to patent in 1780 his “Imperial Mercury.” This vehicle had the outward appearance of one carriage, but it was divided into four equal compartments with space in each for four persons. Each compartment was entered by its own door and was partitioned off from the others by doors and glasses, This curious conveyance must have somewhat resembled an early railway coach. THE MAIL COACH.