We took our coach, two coachmen and four horses, And merrily from London made our courses. We wheel’d the top of th’ heavy hill call’d Holborne (Up which hath been full many a sinful soule borne), And so along we jolted past St. Gileses, Which place from Brainford six (or neare) seven miles is. To Stanes that night at five o’clock we coasted, Where (at the Bush) we had bak’d, boyl’d, and roasted. Bright Sol’s illustrious Rayes the day adorning, We past Bagshot and Bawwaw Friday morning. That night we lodg’d at the White Hart at Alton, And had good meate--a table with a salt on. Next morn w’arose with blushing cheek’d Aurora; The waves were faire, but not so faire as Flora, For Flora was a goddesse, and a woman, And (like the highwayes) to all men was Common. Our Horses, with the Coach, which we went into, Did hurry us amaine, through thick and thine too; With fiery speede, the foaming bit they champt on, And brought us to the Dolphin at Southampton. Southampton, eighty miles from their starting-point, was therefore a three days’ journey in the autumn of 1648. That they were careful not to be on the road after dark is evident from the time they got to Staines, the first stopping-place. The sun sets at exactly 5 p.m. on October 19th. The reference to a place called “Bawwaw,” between Bagshot and Alton, is not to be explained by any scrutiny of maps. Thenceforward until 1657 stage-coaches are not mentioned in the literature of the age, and we set foot upon firm ground only with the advertisement in the _Mercurius Politicus_ of April 9th in that year:-- “_FOR the convenient accommodation of Passengers from and betwixt the Cities of_ London _and_ Westchester, _there is provided several Stage-Coaches which go from the_ George _Inn without Aldersgate upon every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to_ Coventry, _in Two days for Twenty five shillings, to_ Stone _in Three days for Thirty shillings, and to_ Chester _in Four days for Thirty five shillings, and from thence to return upon the same days; which is performed with much safety to the Passengers, having fresh Horses once a day. In Mondays Intelligence last the severall sums and rates were by the Printer mistaken._”