The Manchester and Glasgow Road, Volume 1 (of 2) This Way to Gretna Green

Part 2

Chapter 22,856 wordsPublic domain

At a time when the able-bodied—who, after all, were the only people who could endure this kind of thing—were 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 “George and Blue Boar,” Holborn, and the “Bush,” 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, £3 16_s._, and out, £2 6_s._ Passengers taken up on the road paid from twopence to threepence per mile. Dogs were strictly forbidden, under a penalty of £5.

It is not until 1788 that we learn of “Plummer’s Glasgow and London Coach,” 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 fashion—resembling the mournful deliberation of a funeral—pictured 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 kept—varied only by occasional divagations taking in Leeds and Ripon—until 1835, and, owing to road improvements between London and Doncaster, a number of accelerations were even possible.

It must have been at an early period of these revisions of the time-table that Professor John Wilson, the athletic “Christopher North,” 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 o’clock 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 9·34 miles per hour as compared with that of the swift Bristol mail, speeding along the road at 10·3, almost a mile an hour quicker. Analysed, however, it discloses for the 95 miles along Telford’s 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 MAJESTY’s POSTMASTER-GENERAL.

_Time Bill, London and Carlisle Mail._

+------------+---------+--------+-------------------------------------+ |Contractors’| 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._

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 “Greyhound” 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 o’clock 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 £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 £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 porcupine’s quills, and with rain, dew, and hoar-frost as one’s 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.

Thus it is that we obtain only brief and disconnected glimpses of the mail’s 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:

“After 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 night’s 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 house—yea, even my landlady’s private stick wherewith she corrects her spouse—had 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 ‘Bull and Mouth,’ 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.”

[Sidenote: _AN AFFECTED TRAVELLER_]

“Stinking, noisy stye,” he elsewhere calls the “Bull and Mouth,” 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 o’clock in the morning, his duty was, on these historic occasions, to thrice discharge his blunderbuss in the air. Every one then rushed to the “Tontine” 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.