1880.]

Hexham Church-Roman Villa at Pitney.”

the Rev. Robert Clarke, did much to this building, and, had he not been "cut off in the midst of his days," much more would have been done,his inclination and his means were in unison, and not only the church, but the poor, lost in him a friend and benefactor.

The church suffered much in the 13th century, from the incursions of the Scots, when the west wing or nave was destroyed; but it has suffered more by the barbarism of the inhabitants! The north transept was made the entrance; a door has been placed in it, in humble imitation of the Doric! Galleries are placed without uniformity, between the pillars of the choir; the capitals of the pillars, and the fine old oaken stalls, are cut to suit the convenience of those who erected them; buildings have been surreptitiously placed against the church, so as to hide it from public view, and the only entrance from the market place is through a passage which would disgrace a common manufactory! About the year 1727, a bond was raised by a "brief," to build two abutments, &c. to support the tower to the west; could not the same be adopted at present, to restore what the parish is unable to do? * We venerate the character of those who added to our national buildings in the middle ages, -is the present generation, who have the ability, indifferent to the praises of posterity? I am fearful, Mr. Urban, trespass on your valuable pages, or much might be said on the subject. Yours, &c. HEXHAMENSIS.

17

the same neighbourhood, of which a very imperfect account appeared some time ago in the public papers.

This fine villa extends above 300 feet in length. Its form is an oblong square, surrounded by buildings, offices, baths, &c. the principal apartments facing the west, and having an extensive area within.

Five adjoining rooms are decorated with mosaic floors, in very good preservation, No. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. The same subject is continued in 1, 3, and 4; and that subject is so unlike any other that has been chosen, that it deserves our particular attention.

In almost all the mosaic pavements hitherto discovered in Britain, we ge nerally find figures alluding to the heathen mythology, with arabesques of birds, fish, beasts, and foliage. The figures of Bacchus and Medusa are the most frequent, as in the fine pavements at Bramdean, in Hants, and at Thruxton, at the latter of which is an inscription.* But in the pavement at Pitney we have a British story, alluding to the mines, smelting, and coining.

It is generally supposed that the Romans, after the conquest of Britain, were very diligent in exploring the minerals of our island; and, although we know not of any mines in the immediate neighbourhood of Pitney, yet they are found in great abundance in the adjoining hills of Mendip.

In the small room, No. 1, we see a young man striking with fury at the hydra (udup), as we all know that water is the greatest enemy to mines.

No. 2, contains an elegant arabesque pattern.

No. 3, is the grand apartment, and I may safely pronounce it unique, for it contains within a square nine wholelength figures (in compartments), of about four feet in height.

I imagine that the central figure is the owner of the villa, holding a cup of coin in his hand to pay his dependants. The figures are male and female alternate, holding in their hands the different instruments still in use for smelting ore, such as rakes, forks, pincers, and long iron rods, crooked and straight; also canisters, or smelting pots, from which coin is dropping. Adjoining to this apartment is an

* See vol. xc. ii. p. 280.

18

Rise and Progress of Stage-Coach Travelling.

other, No. 4, of smaller proportions, and differing in design though not in subject; for the four square compartments (one of which has been destroyed), represent winged boys dancing and carrying along the canisters of coin, suspended on crooked iron rods, rake, pincers, &c.

There is another small apartment adjoining No. 4, which has only a simple mosaic pavement. The tessellæ of those pavements are composed of white, buff, blue lias stone, and brick.

The village of Pitney adjoins that of Littleton, near Somerton, where numerous remains of the Roman æra have been found, and is situated at a short distance from the Roman road leading from Iscalis (Ilchester) to Street and Glastonbury; and the whole of these important discoveries, and their preservation, are due to the zeal of Samuel Hasell, Esq. of Littleton, by whose means I have had very correct drawings made of all these fine mosaic pavements. R. C. H.

IN

Staffordshire Moorlands, MR. URBAN, December 28. N Vol. xx. of the "Archæologia" there is an interesting paper by J. H. Markland, Esq. on the early use of carriages in England, which traces the vehicular mode of conveyance, very clearly and circumstantially, from its origin. One branch of the inquiry, however, as it did not form part of his object to examine into it minutely, he has touched upon but slightly: viz. the rise and progress of those public conveyances commonly called Stagecoaches: and the following materials may, therefore, not be without their use towards a further illustration of the subject.

Stage-coaches (in the present sense of the term) seem to have been first used about the middle of the seventeenth century; for the earliest mention of them adduced by Mr. Markland (and I have met with none of remoter date) occurs in an extract from "Dugdale's Diary," communicated by Mr. Hamper, in which he mentions his travelling to London by the Coventry coach, in 1659, and his daughter by the Coventry waggon, in 1660. At this period indeed, and long after, the use of coaches was confined to people of the higher class, those of a meaner sort being content to travel more slowly by the caravans or stage-waggons, spo

[Jan.

ken of by Stowe as a common mode of conveyance circa 1560, and which carried twenty or thirty persons. In the fragment of Dr. Johnson's AutoBiography, published by Wright, of Lichfield, he tells us, that "when taken to London by his mother, in 1711, to be touched for the evil, they travelled thither by the coach; but, from considerations of economy, returned home in a waggon." This cumbrous vehicle, the appearance of which has been perpetuated by Hogarth (in his "Harlot's Progress," Plate 1.), continued to be generally resorted to, till towards the close of the last century, by the lower orders of country people who visited London; but I believe the stage-coaches, by their number and cheapness, have now almost completely superseded it.

How long after their introduction coaches remained without the luxury of springs, does not exactly appear; but that this addition was somewhat of a novelty in 1703, may be inferred from a passage in Baker's Comedy, called "Tunbridge Walks," published in that year, wherein Maiden, an effeminate fellow, observes, "Some people are fond of a horse: I wonder what pleasure there is in jumbling one's bones to a jelly? But I love a spring-chariot!" In fact, a journey of fifty miles, over the roads of those days, in a carriage without springs, must have been no slight undertaking. Mr. Markland cites a letter from Edward Parker to his father, dated Nov. 1663, descriptive of his progress to London by the" coatch," in which he says:"Ye company yt came up wth mee were persons of greate quality, as Knights and Ladyes; but my journey was noe ways pleasant, being forced to ride in the boote all the waye, wch hath so indisposed mee, y I am resolved never to ride up againe in y coatch."

:

The "boote" here mentioned, which must not be confounded with the appendage so called at present, was a projection on either side of the vehicle, in which a passenger sat on a stool, with his face to the window, if, indeed, windows were known in our early coaches. It is depicted in one of the plates accompanying Mr. Markland's Essay, and something of the kind seems to be still retained in the state-coaches used by the Speaker of the House of Commons and the Lord

1830.] Rise and Progress of Stage-Coach Travelling.

Mayor of London. This incommodious situation, for which a lower fare was probably required, gave place to the clumsy basket, which many readers will recollect, and which those who do not, may see faithfully represented in one of Middiman's Views "Near Bath, 1785."*

Previously to the consolidation of the various partial Acts for their repair, which had been passed at intervals from the time of Charles II. the state of the roads presented an insuperable obstacle to the swift progress of stages, three or four miles an hour being esteemed very respectable travelling, and a journey by night a thing unthought of. The rise and progress of our highways, distinguished from the Roman roads, would be a subject of investigation curious and almost untouched. The irregular and ill-judged course of the greater part of them, climbing hills which might have been avoided, and winding over morasses when solid ground might have been chosen, irresistibly suggests the conclusion, that their first formation was entirely fortuitous, and the completion gradual. As population increased, tracks were worn from one farm-house to another, and from one village to the neighbouring hamlet: mutual convenience impelled those who traversed them to combine in improving their means of communication, and thus by degrees arose our public roads. The most frequented of these were long kept in repair simply by rates, levied from time to time, upon the principal landholders of the neighbourhood; but the inadequacy of this system, to insure a uniform and thorough repair of the highways, need not be pointed out. (The vilest crossroads of the present day afford, I suspect, but a faint idea of the state in which those most frequented were suffered to exist in the seventeenth century; and it is told in Lincolnshire, that even so late as 1750, when Lord Brownlow Bertie was a candidate to represent the county, he canvassed it entirely on horseback, many of the roads being quite impassable by wheels.

A lively notion of the delays and dangers to which travellers in carriages were formerly exposed, may be gathered from the details given by Mr.

Jonson, in "Every Man out of his Humour," styles Fastidious Brisk "a good property to perfume the boot of a coach."

19

Markland; and various additional particulars will be found in some extracts from Lord Clarendon's Correspondence (Gent. Mag. vol. xcvIII. i. p. 229). Referring to his Lordship's Letters, I find one dated from Newport, in Shropshire, 23 Dec. 1685, detailing his progress to Holyhead, in which he says: We are now taking coach for Whitchurch, where we are to lodge at night. It is but fifteen miles from hence; but the other fourteen from thence to Chester are so bad way, that all people tell me it will be a sufficient day's journey for to-morrow." In a subsequent letter, dated on New-Year's Day, 168, he says:-" The coach carried us to Bangor, where we ferried over into Anglesey, and then put my wife into the litter again, for never was, or can come, a coach into that part of the country." Little did his Lordship anticipate the wonders of the Menai Bridge, and the achievements of the Holyhead Road Commissioners!

From his remarks, in a private part of the correspondence, we may gather that the roads in Staffordshire and Warwickshire (which he styles "two noble counties") were then in a better condition than in most other parts of the kingdom. And Dr. Plot, writing about the same time, asserts that those of the former were "universally good, except in the most northerly parts of the Moorelands; so that 'tis reported King James, speaking_jocularly of the county, should say, Twas fit only to be cut into thongs, to make highways for the rest of the kingdom!" Numerous additional proofs of the almost impassable state of most roads, by vehicles, a century or two ago, especially in the winter season, might readily be adduced, but it is needless to swell this article with more. The subject will be found sufficiently and most happily illustrated in the animated description of the Wronghead family's expedition to the metropolis, given by John Moody, in Vanbrugh's Journey to London."

To return, however, to stage-coaches, the various conveniences of which seem to have been soon appreciated, for their numbers rapidly increased; and, in addition to the Coventry coach, 1659, Dugdale (Diary) mentions, on the same line of road, that of Aylesbury, 1662; St. Alban's, 1663; Chester, 1677; Birmingham, 1679; and Bedford, 1680; though whether he alludes to distinct

20

Rise and Progress of Stage-Coach Travelling.

vehicles, or merely to one which passed through the several towns, does not clearly appear. The fullest list of the early stages occurs in Delaune's "Account of London," 1671 (see vol. XCIX. ii. p. 485), a comparison of which with one for 1829, presents a strange contrast. Under the head of Coventry he names but one, which was, apparently, two or three days on the road, and was perhaps that by which Dugdale travelled. "William Mitchel's CoachWagon comes to the Bell-Savage on Ludgate Hill on Friday, goes out on Saturday." With the improvement of the roads, however, the coaches began to improve their speed, the progressive increase of which, and various other particulars, may be gathered from the subjoined advertisements. The first is from No. 400 of "The Spectator," orig. edit.

"A Coach & Six Able Horses will be at the One Bell in the Strand, tomorrow, being Tuesday, the 10th of this instant June, [1712], bound for Exon, Plymouth, and Falmouth, where all persons shall be kindly

used."

About this period, the dwellers on the North Road were surprised by the phenomenon of a vehicle which traversed the distance between London and Edinburgh in the brief space of a fortnight. The commencement of this surprising novelty was thus announced in the "Newcastle Courant," October,

1712:

"Edinburgh, Berwick, Newcastle, Durham, and London Stage-Coach, begins on Monday, the 13 Oct. 1712. All that desire to pass from Edinbro' to London, or from London to Edinbro', or any place on that road, let them repair to Mr. John Baillie's, at the Coach & Horses, at the Head of the Cannongate, Edinbro', every other Saturday, or to the Black Swan, in Holborn, every other Monday, at both of which places they may be received in a Stage-Coach, which performs the whole journey in thirteen days, without any stoppage, (if God permit) having eighty able horses to perform the whole stage. Each passenger paying £4. 10 for the whole journey, allowing each passenger 20lbs. weight, and all above to pay 6d. per pound. The Coach sets off at six in the morning. Performed by

HENRY HARRISON, ROBT. GARBE, "NICH. SPEIGHL, RICH. CROFT." It has been noticed above that, in the reign of Charles II., the York coach was fourteen days on its way to the metropolis, a statement perhaps somewhat exaggerated, or applicable

[Jan.

to the winter season only. But even so recently as 1734, I find the writer of a work, entitled "A Journey from London to Scarborough," including among the remarkable things he met with, a coach which performed the distance in four days, the progress of which he thus circumstantially describes:

"The York Coach goes from the Swan Inn, Holborn, & from the Red Lion Inn, in Gray's-Inn Lane, Mondays, Wednesdays, & Fridays, in four days, at 40s. per Passenger. The first stage, Biggleswade in Bedfordshire; the second, Stamford in Lincolnshire; the third, Barnby Moor in Yorkshire [Notts.]; & the last day you reach York."

Thirty years later, a still further increase of speed had taken place on this road, as appears by a paragraph in the "Scots' Magazine," Jan. 1765, p. 54:

Flying Post-Coaches have lately been established to go between Newcastle and London. A coach sets out from either place every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, at four o'clock in the morning, and makes the journey in three days; carries six inside passengers, each paying 3d. a mile, and allowed 14lbs. of baggage; and they carry no outside passengers."

The Shrewsbury coaches now reach London, a distance of 160 miles, in seventeen or eighteen hours; but in the "Shrewsbury Chronicle," for 1774, frequent advertisements occur of the only two coaches which then left the place, called "The Old Machine," and "The New Machine," and which

performed the journey (God permitting) in two days and one night." They stopped for breakfast at Wolverhampton; for dinner at Coventry; and passed the night at Dunchurch. "The New Machine" possessed the advantage of "steel springs."

In Nov. 1826, died at Hounslow, æt. seventy, Fagg, the great coachowner, who was once the proprietor of the only Southampton coach, which then took two days to perform the journey, staying all night at Farnham.

The advance, however, which has taken place in coach travelling, is not attributable solely to driving at an increased speed, but in a great degree to the improved system of changing horses; and, above all, to the avoidance of unnecessary stoppages. As to the operation of changing horses, it now occupies about a minute, the animals being kept in waiting for the arrival of the coach, and put to with surprising dis