[Illustration: DANCING SAILOR.] XXXVIII The old coach offices clustered about this spot. Several stood in Bath Square, and here, among others, was the Old Van Office, kept by Uriah Green. The vans were similar to the stage-coaches, but much larger and clumsier, and jogged along at a very easy pace. They took, in fact, from fifteen to sixteen hours to perform the journey under the most favourable circumstances, and in bad weather no one ventured to prophesy at what time they _would_ arrive. The fares were, consequently, very much lower than those of the swifter coaches, which stood at £1 1_s._ 0_d._ inside, and 12_s._ 6_d._ outside. One might, on the other hand, take a trip from Portsmouth to London on the outside of a van for 6_s._ 6_d._ The cheapness of these conveyances caused them to be largely patronized by blue-jackets. One van left Portsmouth at four p.m. every day for the "Eagle," City Road, London, arriving there at about seven or eight o'clock the next morning, and another left the "Eagle" for Portsmouth at the same time. [Sidenote: _ROAD TRAVEL_] This was at the beginning of the present century, and was a vast improvement upon the still older, clumsier, and infinitely slower road-wagons. Thirty-five years earlier (_circa_ 1770), even the quickest stages were no speedier than the vans. For instance, at that time the "Royal Mail" started daily from the "Blue Posts" at two p.m., and only arrived in London at six o'clock the next morning. Then came Clarke's "Flying Machine," which was so little like flying that it did the journey only in a day, leaving the "King's Arms" Inn, Portsmouth, every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday night at ten o'clock, and returning on alternate nights. In 1805 the number and the speed of coaches were considerably augmented. Among them were the "Royal Mail," from the "George"; the "Nelson," from the "Blue Posts"; the "Hero," from the "Fountain"; the "Regulator," from the "George"; and Vicat and Co.'s speedy "Rocket," that started from the "Quebec" Tavern, and did the journey to town in nine hours. It was at this period that a local bard was moved to verse by the astonishing swiftness of the coaches, and this is how he sings their prowess:-- "In olden times, two days were spent 'Twixt Portsmouth and the Monument; When Flying Diligences plied, When men in Roundabouts would ride, And at the surly driver's will, Get out and climb each tedious hill. But since the rapid Freeling's age, How much improved the _English Stage_! Now in ten hours the London Post Reaches from Lombard Street our coast." Prodigious! But when the railway was opened from Portsmouth to Nine Elms in 1840, and did the journey in three hours, there were, alas! no votaries of the Muse to celebrate the event.