Travelling the roads of Regency England with Louise Allen!

Nicola here, and today I am thrilled to welcome Louise Allen back to the Word Wenches! As well as being a hugely popular and award-winning author of historical romance, Louise is a lover of London history and especially the Georgian period, and is the author of Walking Jane Austen's London. Today Louise is talking about how her research has led to her writing two other non-fiction books that are a must for both authors and history-lovers alike: Stagecoach Travel and Following the Great North Road. I can recommend both books very highly indeed and it's a great pleasure to hear from Louise about the background to the books.

Over to Louise:

One of the joys of writing historical romance is the research – and, of course, it is one of the worst temptations as a displacement activity. You look up which inns served the stagecoach route to Bath for one sentence in the novel and the next thing you know it is four hours later, you’ve bought a book of stagecoach timetables (expensive), an 1812 route map (even more expensive) and you are side tracked into wondering what the food was like at the inns in Newbury.

This happens to me all the time and one day, wrestling with plotting a journey north from London, I wondered what the experience of stage and mail coach travel was really like. The sentimental Victorian prints show it as a fun outing with rosy-cheeked parsons, jolly dames, winsome schoolboys, pretty young ladies and the occasional romantically handsome highwayman on his big black stallion, hoping to steal a kiss from the young ladies. Somehow I doubted that was accurate, so I set out to investigate using as many original sources as I could. The result was Stagecoach Travel (Shire Publications). http://www.louiseallenregency.com/books/stagecoach.php

In the mid 18^th century, when the first stagecoaches lurched along the dreadful roads, a traveller would
be wise to make their will before they set out and to allow, for example, six days (“God willing” as the advertisements put it) for the 182 miles from London to Chester. Few towns were connected by stagecoach and the roads were truly dreadful – in 1770 Arthur Young wrote, ‘To Wigan. I know not in the whole range of language terms sufficiently expressive to describe this infernal road… [It has] ruts, which I actually measured four feet deep.’

But by the early 1800s things had changed. Turnpike trusts had improved the roads, patrols and vigorous action by magistrates had tamed the highwaymen (although in Ireland things were different - as late as 1808 a copper-lined coach on the Cork-Dublin road was advertised as bulletproof). Coaching had become an industry employing thousands of people and covering the country in a network of timetabled routes served by hundreds of inns stabling the horses and feeding the passengers.

With prices in the early 19^th century at 4d to 5d a mile inside, 2d a mile outside, there was little competition on price, so the traveller’s choice depended on timings, reputation and advertising. The unwary had to take care that booking clerks did not send them on a roundabout, expensive, route. Thomas Carlyle warned in 1830, ‘There are men in Liverpool who will book you to go by any Coach you like, and to enter London at any place and any hour you like; and send you thither by any Coach or combination of Coaches they like.’

If you were new to the experience you might do well to arm yourself with a guidebook such as William Kitchener’s The Traveller’s Oracle or, Maxims for Locomotion. He offered such advice as, ‘Secure a Place a Day or two before you set off…It is necessary to be at the place in due Time; for, as the saying is, “Time and Tide,” and it may be added, “Stage Coaches, stay for no Man.” As clocks vary, you will do wisely to be there full five minutes before what you believe to be the true Time.’ He also explained the etiquette of seating – first come, first choice and once you had ‘bagged’ a seat you should expect to keep it for the length of the journey.

The departure of a stagecoach from one of the London termini, such as the Belle Sauvage on Ludgate Hill or The White Horse Cellar in Piccadilly, was a scene of apparent confusion and a major tourist attraction. William Cobbett wrote, ‘Next to a fox hunt the finest sight in England is a stage coach just ready to start…The vehicle itself, the harness, all so complete and so neatly arranged, so strong and clean and good; the beautiful horses, impatient to be off; the inside full and the outside covered, in every part, with men, women and children, boxes, bags, bundles…’

Once on the road the comfort and safety of passengers was a minor consideration for the operators and, as far as comfort was concerned, depended to a large extent on your fellow passengers, their size, sobriety and standards of personal hygiene. I measured one of the few genuine surviving stage coaches, the Old Times, in Birmingham Museums’ store. It is forty one inches wide inside, which meant that the six passengers, bundled up in outdoor clothing, had just under fourteen inches of lateral space each. They perched on seats only thirteen and a half inches deep with an eighteen inch share of the knee room and could only hope that their fellow passengers were both skinny and short.

The Hon. John Byng complained that being, ‘…box’d up in a stinking coach, dependent on the hours and guidance of others, submitting to miserable associates and obliged to hear their nonsense, is great wretchedness!’ A German traveller, J. H. Campe, found his journey from Great Yarmouth to London a ‘veritable torture’. They covered a hundred and twenty four miles in fifteen hours with only one rest stop of half an hour. ‘Even the most urgent demands of nature had to be suppressed or postponed in order that there might not be a minute’s delay in changing horses…If a traveller wished to get down for a moment, he was faced with the danger that his luggage might be carried on to London without him. The coachman seemed to recognise no other duty than to arrive punctually.’

But for some people the journey was a pleasure. Sporting gentlemen rode beside the driver in the hope of taking the ribbons and “waggoning it” – which often led to accidents. The Romantic movement, which stimulated an interest in picturesque scenery, coincided with the development of reliable stage routes, so the coaches became transport for tourists who would prefer to sit on the roof in good weather to better admire the view. Coaches on the London-Brighton run in the summer would be loaded with young bucks, their lady friends and picnics to eat as they went.

The view and the fresh air were better outside (if it was warm and dry weather) but you were seated outside with the luggage and could have some unpleasant company. Body-snatchers sent corpses in boxes labelled as books; caged hunting hounds travelled by stage to a gentleman’s hunting box; live turtles might be strapped on their backs on the roof and one mail coach guard was found to be smuggling live veal calves in the box under his seat.

With the arrival of the railways in the 1840s the collapse of the stage and mail coach industry was rapid and devastating. Entire small towns became villages, inns closed, farmers lost income supplying horses, fodder and food for the inns, which also often had to close. Not only did drivers and guards find themselves out of work but so did grooms, feed merchants, farriers, harness and coach makers, whip and livery makers, inn servants… Thousands were affected and the roads became quiet again, merely carrying local and agricultural traffic until the arrival of the bicycle and then the car at the beginning of the 20^th century.

And that led me to follow, literally, the route of one of the major coaching routes, the Great North Road from London to Edinburgh. These days, if you mention the Great North Road, people say, ‘Oh, that’s the A1.’ But it is only a small part of the original route and over several expeditions my husband and I followed every yard of the old route that we could, guided by early maps, stagecoach timetables and the writings of the Victorian travellers who were enchanted by the “romance of the road” and who were able to talk to the old drivers and guards.

Often the GNR is lost under concrete and dual carriageways, and in one place becomes a railway footbridge, but we traced it through Hatfield Park, over lethal bridges, along woodland bridleways and in and out of picturesque towns and villages now by-passed by the main roads. We found old coaching inns, the locations of gruesome executions, murders and romantic elopements and even the inn where the Lord Chancellor Eldon (who had himself eloped when a young and reckless student) used to go for his holidays to drink bottle after bottle of port with the landlord.

The result was Following the Great North Road: a guide for the modern traveller http://www.louiseallenregency.com/books/greatnorthroad.php which combines directions for a car driver with a description of what the early 19^th century traveller would have encountered. I’ve been told that it is ideal to use with Google Street View – and uses much less petrol!

Many thanks to Louise for joining us on the Word Wenches today with such a funny and fascinating insight into travel in the early 19th century. We're offering a e-copy of Following the Great North Road to one lucky commenter today so do ask Louise anything you would like about her research into stagecoach travel. To get the ball (or the coach) rolling, how would you have enjoyed travel in the early 19th century? What would have interested you most about the experience? Would you have chose to sit outside and watch the view, or inside and chat to your fellow travellers? Would you have taken a picnic or would you prefer to sample the food at the inns? 

You can find Louise online in the following places:

www.louiseallenregency.com

http://janeaustenslondon.com

@LouiseRegency

Scandal’s Virgin – shortlisted for the RNA RoNA Rose Award 2015 http://www.louiseallenregency.com/books/scandalsvirgin.php 

Comments

[Alison]

I have to say I'm also a huge fan of the eighteenth century and I also get side tracked while researching things!

To be honest I'd rather be in my own well sprung coach, and I certainly wouldn't be volunteering for outside - I've heard stories of people freezing to death up there! I'd also like to be near the door/window to watch the countryside go by and spot any landmarks.

No, I'd rather be cosy (haha) inside, people watching and preferably with a companion! I think some of the inn food sounds good if it's hot.

[Gram]

Wow. If I had to travel it would have been outside in the summer! or on horseback - young ladies could, couldn't they???

[Anne Gracie]

Fabulous blog, Louise-- welcome to the word wenches. And thanks for organising it, Nicola . I have just purchased Louise's book and can't wait to browse through it. I think it would depend on the inn whether I'd prefer their fare of my own picnic — I might do as I did when backpacking years ago -- look at what was on offer before deciding.

[Julie Fetter]

What class of people most commonly bought passage by stagecoach? We tend to assume that the upper classes would own their own coaches, but I think it wasn't necessarily so. Maybe your family did, but you may not have had access.

[Kathy Lynn Emerson]

I've done a fair amount of travel research myself (roads and waterways for sixteenth-century England; trains and steamboats for the U.S. In the 1888s) and you're right. Hours later, I'd surface and realize I never did find the detail I was looking for but had reams of notes on other fascinating stuff. Now, of course, I have to add your book on the Great North Road to my library. I suspect some parts of it hadn't changed much since Tudor times.

[Kate Sparks]

I don't get seasick or travel sick, but somehow I'm not certain that this type of travel would be a personal hell for some people in my family. All that swaying and lurching.

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Mainly middle class, merchants, military & naval men professionals, servants, governesses and the better off working class. But the aristocracy might use the stage and mail - usually the men on their way to sporting events, or wanting to drive it themselves. For ladies then I think hiring a post chaise would have been the main option.

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Possibly not as seasick-making as the post chaises which were nicknamed "yellow bounders". But by all accounts the smell could be pretty ripe!

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Two of Jane Austen's nephews almost froze on a journey up from the south coast. luckily the coachman knew the family and draped the tails of his huge greatcoat over them. But people certainly died of exposure

[Annette N]

I guess women would not be sitting outside would they? But, it seems to me if it were warm and sunny with no bad weather expected sitting outside even with a hound or two would be better than being crammed into a tiny space with people who did not have the same sense of cleanliness. So, Louise, with the rules of society in place during the Regency period, how likely would it be that a woman would travel alone and if so would she be forced by propriety to ride inside in that tiny space?

[Nicola Cornick]

I think it would be unusual for ladies to ride alongside although perhaps not unheard of - We need an expert to confirm!

[Nicola Cornick]

A pleasure, Anne! I'm so pleased you enjoyed Louise's blog. I agree - it's a bit like travelling now. It can be so disappointing to set your heart on eating somewhere only to discover the food is awful!

[Nicola Cornick]

Isn't that one of the fabulous things about research, Kathy (although not if you're short of time!)

[Nicola Cornick]

I'm feeling a bit nauseous just reading that! Must admit I hadn't thought of the motion sickness thing. That would be hell.

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Women certainly did ride outside. Miss Weeton, a governess, travelled outside sometimes to save money & also to sight-see. But she recorded a horrible experience in her diary when a drunken man took her nice seat and jammed her up against the edge and the painful rail. She was in tears. A respectable young lady probably wouldn't travel outside, but, for example on the Brighton coaches in the summer young gentlemen would take their er..lady-friends and a picnic and ride on top of the stage down to Brighton as an outing. Virtually all the prints show women riding outside.

[Vicki W.]

From everything I've read.....it would be one heck of a rough ride and it you were going from London to Edinburgh....you would feel pulverized at the end. I've spent many days riding on rutted dirt roads in trucks and even with modern suspension...ummm..... At the end of the day I felt battered and beaten.

Suspension on coaches being what it was....

As for the motion sickness bit...yep....I'm prone to that. Twisty turning roads with lots of curves. Light coming through the trees wrong and seeing it flicker by in the winter & fall. All that shaking and jouncing. I've even gotten carsick when I was the one driving...

Fresh air helps but I don't know how much you were allowed to open the windows in the coaches. And if you were a very junior member of the group in the coach, your wishes were probably not heeded.

So here are my questions:
What was the average distance between stops?
What was the length of the average stop..
And I assume the stop that was at a meal time was longer? But not much?

[Jobev]

Great stuff, Louise and Nicola. I too find travel details fascinating. It certainly wasn't a simple matter of go from A to M, so there are all kinds of story possibilities along the way.

I think I would enjoy traveling outside in decent weather, but the English weather can be so unpredictable!

[Jobev]

Distance traveling on horseback could be quite arduous, Gram. I'm not saying women couldn't but it would need stamina. Few men would choose that over being in a vehicle.

Also a ridden horse probably couldn't keep up with a fast coach, even if the rider was changing horses as frequently. It's easier to pull than carry. Think of a wheeled suitcase!

[Elinor Aspen]

Fascinating. What is the oldest surviving coaching inn that you found along the route of the Great North Road? I recently enjoyed a Sunday roast at The George in Southwark, which dates from the late 17th century. Is there anything older on the GNR?

[Mary M.]

Oh, thank you, Louise and Nicola (and everyone else who chimed in). As I said in a comment earlier in the week, this is just the "color" I love finding in historicals. (I even mentioned "an inn on the Great North Road"!) A few years ago I had hoped to explore the Great North Road on my first trip to England but we just didn't have the time we'd need. Gretna Green is still on my bucket list. I may not get there in person, but I certainly will devour Louise's book. Question: Were elopements via the GNR as common as the novels would have us believe? Were they often successful, or mostly thwarted?

BTW, I can't imagine being squished into a 14” space for hours at a time. For reference, an average modern theater seat is about 23" wide. Even a cattle-car economy airplane seat is generally 18" or more (and we all groan at that thought, yes?) and at least you can get up occasionally and walk around. Sometimes the good old days are just old days, I guess.

[HJ]

I was reminded of your excellent book Stagecoach Travel when I recently re-read Georgette Heyer's The Corinthian. Not only do her characters take the Bristol stagecoach from London (it crashes before it gets there because the drunken coachman lets one of the outside passengers "tool the coach"), but Penn later takes the stagecoach from Bristol and gets moaned at by the guard because she boards it at Kingswood instead of in Bristol, where she had bought her ticket. I'm always surprised by how large the coaches must have been, to accommodate so many people plus their luggage.

[Cathy]

If I couldn't take a private conveyance I would elect to sit outside and just dressed for it--even if it were raining and cold. We live 1/2 mile off the Old National Pike in Maryland and old routes fascinate me. On his ill-fated expedition to Ft. Duquesne General Braddock, along with George Washington, stopped nearby at at what is now called Braddock Springs after leaving Fredericktowne where Benjamin Franklin helped acquire the necessary wagons and supplies from surrounding farms. Roads are a character in themselves since they can have an effect on the plot!

[ML]

Personally, I think I would have brought a nice pad to sit on. Reading this makes me realize how uncomfortable those coaches were!

[Mary Jo Putney]

Louise, thanks so much for visiting the Wenches and sharing your incredible knowledge! Your stagecoach book was recommended on another writers' loop and I bought it immediately, thinking is this by THE Louis Allen??? THe book is marvelously rich with details. (And as an historical author, I totally understand being sucked down the rabbit hole by irresistible trails of research! Thanks again for coming

[Nicola Cornick]

I've stayed at The George in Stamford, Elinor, which claims to be the oldest coaching inn in England, I think, as it started its life as a hostelry for pilgrims and was run by the Knights Templar. It is an amazing place! It still has the "London" and "Edinburgh" rooms on each side of the main entrance where the 18th and 19th century travellers would gather to wait for the coaches.

[Nicola Cornick]

"Sometimes the good old days are just old days, I guess." LOL, Mary! So true. Sometimes when I wish I could time travel to Regency England I remind myself it would be just for a visit and not to stay! A 14 inch space for a long journey would be... cosy.

[Karin]

Thanks for that very informative piece. I think it's funny that the cheapest airline seats are still called "coach". The seats may be slightly wider, but you are still trapped for hours on end, and nowadays it's advisable to bring your own food!
I wonder why the coachmen were induced to allow thrill-seekers to dtake the reins. Was it just for the money, and wouldn't they get in a lot of trouble if the amateur driver crashed?

[Nicola Cornick]

Karin, I've never thought of that with regard to the use of the word "coach" these days! I love the way old words and meanings transform and are still used today!

[Nicola Cornick]

LOL, ML! That is a great idea. anything to make the journey more comfortable! When I was watching Poldark the other night there was a scene in a coach and they were certainly tightly packed in!

[Nicola Cornick]

Wow, Cathy, what fascinating history that route has! I've just looked it up to find out more.

I totally agree - I love old roads and the stories associated with them. The Great North Road is a good example. Even the name is evocative! Half a mile from where I live is an old Roman road now called the Portway and there were battles and many other exciting things happening around here. Whenever I drive along it I think of armies marching!

[Nicola Cornick]

There is so much great travel detail in Heyer, isn't there, HJ. I think I learned a huge amount of detail on the Regency period from her books alone. Invaluable.

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The average distance between each stop was 10 miles and the speed was 8-10 mph so not long between stops - but the change of horses would be a very fast operation - 50 seconds to a minute if you had an experienced set of men on it. Passengers dare not get out - one records being desperate to go to the privy, but he daren't because the coach would leave without him. There were occasional longer stops, perhaps every 60-100 miles when the drivers changed, and at those passengers could try and bolt down some food or make a rush to relieve themselves!

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The one reputed to be the oldest in England is on the Great North Road - The Angel in Grantham, parts of which are supposed to date back to the 1200s - still open for business. You can see it on Google Streetview in the High Street

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They weren't actually all that large! But my goodness, they were crammed. When "The Peveril of the Peak" overturned near Bedford in 1836 it weighed 3 tons - the coach itself only weighed 1.5 tons.

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You were advised to take straw to put around your feet and to put your feet on some of your luggage to keep them a little warmer. The drivers' seat was intentionally hard to keep him awake (!) but they would fold the tails of their greatcoats under them to make a cushion & I suppose the passengers would do that too.

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Thanks, Mary Jo! I hated wasting all that research which is why I wrote Walking Jane Austen's London. You can't put it all in the novels, but there is such fascinating stuff out there

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The sporting gentlemen would pay the drivers lavishly for the chance to take the reins - and they had to, because the coaching proprietors would have spies along the route and they'd report misdemeanours and the drivers would be fined.

[Cathy]

That's exactly what I do when we drive up our little mountain....imagine wagons and footmen struggling up the slope. The Civil War also touched on our road as well as several battles were fought in the vicinity.

I'm delighted to have won the e-Book! I just got word today. I look forward to reading it.

[Nicola Cornick]

I'm so pleased you're pleased, Cathy, and I hope it will bring you lots of exciting journeys into the past!

[Elinor Aspen]

I LOVED Walking Jane Austen's London. I put it to good use on our trip last month.

[Nicola Cornick]

Elinor, isn't it great that it works both as a walking guide but also for the armchair tourist as well!