We're right at the start of Douglas's journey now. He's about to set off from London to Liverpool to board a ship for the United States. He records in his Journal "Left Charing Cross by coach for Liverpool". But where in Charing Cross? And what was the coach like? And the journey?
Just as nowadays there are several mainline railway stations in London serving different parts of the country so there were many different departure points in Regency London. I am indebted to Greg Roberts and his blog "Wicked William" for much invaluable information in what follows.
Douglas says he left from Charing Cross so it's a reasonable assumption that he left from the Golden Cross. And yet, certainly in 1819, services to Liverpool appeared to depart from The Swan with Two Necks, Cheapside. But The Swan, in Lad Lane (later Gresham Street) is a considerable distance from Douglas's stated departure in Charing Cross so we must assume that by 1823 the service to Liverpool had moved to the Golden Cross.
The Golden Cross Inn, Charing Cross [Roberts & Wicked William]
Roberts tells us that "This famous inn was a thriving transport hub back in the days when
Charing Cross was a mere village between the cities of London and
Westminster. Probably reaching its apogee in 1819, a combination of
pressure for urban redevelopment and the onset of railways lead to a
sudden death for this inn. By 1827 The Gentleman’s Magazine reported
that the Golden Cross and its ‘extensive stables’ had been acquired by
commissioners acting on behalf of the architect John Nash for the
princely sum of £30,000 – and Trafalgar Square’s development was
underway. There is a great literary connection to Charles Dickens as The
Golden Cross features in Sketches by Boz, David Copperfield and The Pickwick Papers". Many inns were a hive of commercial activity, where goods and services could be traded – quite often tradesmen used their local inn on business cards. Most inns also offered entertainment alongside accommodation for their clients. Sports such as boxing were a common draw, delaying passengers from leaving too soon. We must assume that Douglas resisted these temptations, in a sternly Scottish, Presbyterian sort of way and set off for Liverpool from a well-established London coaching inn, albeit one with only a limited future ahead of it. We can expect, from Roberts and Wicked William, a scene much like this as several coaches jostled for departure outside a busy coaching inn.
And what of the journey? No-one could describe it as an easy ride.
Judith Flanders[1]
gives an excellent description of how arduous stagecoach travel could be.
“The stages carried four
passengers inside, and ten or twelve outside, who perched up on benches on the
roof….One lucky passenger got the box seat beside the coachman. Seating, inside and out, was on a first come,
first served basis, so passengers generally arrived a little before departure
time to reserve a particular seat. Once
that seat had been taken, no matter how many changes and rest stops there were,
etiquette required that each passenger always returned to the same place. Dickens describes in The Pickwick Papers that
‘the outsides did as outsides always do.
They were very cheerful and talkative at the beginning of every stage,
and very dismal and sleepy in the middle, and very bright and wakeful again
towards the end.”
And coaching was dangerous and
uncomfortable [the coaches were relatively tall and narrow and, overloaded with passengers on the roof, this made for a top-heavy and unstable ride. Overturnings were not uncommon].
Reproduced from Wicked William blog
“If it rained the insides
became nearly as wet and muddy as the outsides.
Straw was scattered on the floor for insulation against the cold,
although it was usually dirty and wet….And yet inside was a considerable
improvement on outside. A queasy
passenger complained that on his first stagecoach ride, in 1835, the choices
were sitting facing the horses ‘but without anything against my back’ or facing
backwards’ but secured from falling over and breaking my neck’. In either case all that protected him from
the bare boards was a cushion, which ‘is alas soaking from the previous day’.
[1] Flanders, Judith, The Victorian City – Everyday Life
in Dickens’ London, Atlantic Books, 2012, pp 90-101
Washington Irving's comment that "I have often found in travelling in a stagecoach that it is often a comfort to shift one's position and be bruised in a new place" seems very apt.
And Douglas had the best part of two days of this, with hasty stops, indifferent food (Meals were provided for coach passengers, though the times allowed must have encouraged indigestion; ten minutes for breakfast, and twenty for dinner, which incidentally was at dinner time, and not, as is becoming common today, at supper time.[2] ("Dinner time" in this context is probably at or around midday) and little rest before arriving in Liverpool. [2] Houlder, Eric, Ferrybridge Coaching Days http://www.knottingley.org/history/stagecoaches/coaching_days.htm
In fact Douglas could expect to be fleeced at provincial Inns. Roberts and Wicked William tell us that:
"When undertaking a long journey from London, the cost of your fare and luggage was far from the only expense to be considered. Provincial inns had a reputation pretty much like today’s motorway service stations and were only too ready to fleece passengers for all manner of additional charges as they stopped for rest and refreshment. For example it was widely established that stops should only last 20 minutes. Passengers were expected to pay for their meal in advance but rarely had time to eat it before going on their way. So coaching inns commonly re-sold ‘left-overs’ to the next coach party. If you were unfortunate enough to stay overnight, it was usual to tip the coachman and any accompanying staff, waiters, coaching inn porters, and even charges for candles in your room (which could be as much as 5 shillings extra per night!). There were even ‘local’ taxes levied for support of the poor. Hence lengthy journeys often led to hefty bills, so the best option for any departee from London was to find a regular service from an established carrier, using good roads with minimal stops."
Fully laden stagecoach at Highgate c.1835 [Greg Roberts & Wicked William]
If he did but know it this would become the model for at least the early part of his plant collecting career in the north-eastern USA
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