Now! Then! 2024! - Yorkshire On This Day

Excerpt

After reading the following advertisement, which, some years ago, hung in a frame over the chimney-piece of the Black Swan coffee-room at York, our present mode of transit will strongly contrast with the past, seeing that the 250 miles distance or thereabouts, between Whitby and London, by rail, is accomplished in little more than eight hours, stoppages included: “York four-days Stage Coach begins on Friday the 12th of April, 1706. All that are desirous to pass from London to York, or from York to London or any other place on that road, let them repair to the Black Swan in Holborn, in London, or to the Black Swan in Conney Street in York, at both which places they may be received in a Stage Coach every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, which performs the whole journey in four days (if God permits), and sets forth at five in the morning; and returns from York to Stamford in two days, and from Stamford by Huntingdon, to London in two days more; and the like stages on their return; allowing each passenger 14 lb. weight, and all above, 3d. per pound, etc.”

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Abbreviations:

• ER: East Riding
• GM: Greater Manchester
• NR: North Riding
• NY: North Yorkshire
• SY: South Yorkshire
• WR: West Riding
• WY: West Yorkshire

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Original

After reading the following advertisement, which, some years ago, hung in a frame over the chimney-piece of the Black Swan coffee-room at York, our present mode of transit will strongly contrast with the past, seeing that the 250 miles distance or thereabouts, between Whitby and London, by rail, is accomplished in little more than eight hours, stoppages included.

York four-days Stage Coach begins on Friday the 12th of April, 1706.

All that are desirous to pass from London to York, or from York to London or any other place on that road, let them repair to the Black Swan in Holborn, in London, or to the Black Swan in Conney Street in York, at both which places they may be received in a Stage Coach every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, which performs the whole journey in four days (if God permits), and sets forth at five in the morning; and returns from York to Stamford in two days, and from Stamford by Huntingdon, to London in two days more; and the like stages on their return; allowing each passenger 14lb. weight, and all above, 3d. per pound, &c.

From a similar announcement of the period, we find the journey from London to Edinburgh occupied thirteen days, the fare being £4 10s., and the weight of luggage allowed to each passenger 20lbs., with a payment of 6d. a pound beyond that quantity.

Also within memory, according to a writer on the subject, it took between five and six weeks to drive the herds of cattle from the North of Scotland to the English metropolis, but now they can be whirled there by train in a few hours; while the fish that is caught in the morning on the coast of Berwick on the Scottish border, may be boiling in the kitchens of London the same evening for dinner.

316 words.

Tags

Tags are assigned inclusively on the basis of an entry’s original text and any comment. You may find this confusing if you only read an entry excerpt.

• 📌Berwick-upon-Tweed (4) ·
• Cattle (26) ·
• Coffeehouse (1) ·
• Edinburgh (3) ·
• Fish (8) ·
• Huntingdon (1) ·
• London (74) ·
• Scotland (37) ·
• Stagecoach (7) ·
• Stamford, Lincolnshire (2) ·
• 📌Whitby (20), town, port and parish on the east coast of North Yorkshire/the North Riding at the mouth of the River Esk ·
• 📌York (164) ·

All tags.

Similar

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