IN BYGONE DAYS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 14, 14 December 1932, Page 13

IN BYGONE DAYS

CHRISTMAS IN ENGLAND. MERRY AND ROMANTIC. Christmas in the coaching days was a merry and romantic time in spite of the difficulties and dangers of travelling during the winter mouths. Only the well-to-do took long journeys at Christmas time in the early coaching days, and even prosperous tradesmen very seldom visited distant relatives. And what an adventure it must have seemed to them when a Christmas visit was decided upon! In 1700 the coach took a week to travel from London to York, and even in 1760 a fortnight was required for the journey from Edinburgh to London. In the summer it was no doubt, very pleasant to travel on tho top of a stage coach, but in the bitter weather of an oldfashioned winter even the inside passengers must have had a somewhat uncomfortable time.

It is not perhaps generally known that as late as Christmas, 1834, there were no less than twenty-eight mail coaches leaving London daily for various parts of the country, and, even in the fifties, a number of coaches were still on the road. In the late eighteenth century those who wished to spend the festive season w'ith friends had to set out on their journey some days before Christmas, if they had any great distance to travel; and what a setting out it was 1 People, we are told, occasionally made their wills before starting upon a long journey, and various were the schemes devised for hiding money. On these long journeys the traveller simply had to carry a goodly supply of guineas, for banks were few. and far between, and he never knew r what he might have to spend. There is a story of a farmer who had a special pocket made in the top of his Wellington boot; but a ‘ as * it was discovered by a wily highwayman, and he was poorer by one hundred pounds. Yet there was a jollity about Christmas in the coaching days which made up for the many troubles and hardships which the traveller had to endure. At Christmas everyone had a good word for everyone else, and the welcome which the weary traveller received, when —after perhaps an absepcQ of many years —he again spent Christmas with those near and dear to him, made up for the hours, even days p-erhaps, spent on the top of the coach, exposed to wind and weather. THE HIGHWAYMAN’S HARVEST.

At Christmas the highwaymen were specially troblesome, for at that festive season everyone had money. Also the nights were very long and the days very snort. And there was no way of avoiding the dangers of the road; one had to travel by the coach or remain at home. To be “benighted” had a meaning in those days; and before a guest set out for home, friends and relations gathered around him, and wished him a “safe journey.” Ihe guard was supposed to protect the passengers with his blunderbuss, but there is good reason to believe that he sometimes aimed rather wide of his mark, and the coachman-seemed'by no means loath to pull up when ordered to do so by the “gentleman of the cross roads.” It is to be feared that sometimes they received a “Christmas Box from the said gentleman —in fact, it is known that many of the coach guards and drivers were in leagues with tho highwaymen. At this length of time one cannot, of course, say, definitely how often the Christmas traveller was robbed; probably not so often as is generally supposed; but then, there was the danger, and thus a Christmas journey was something of an adventure. It seems that the old-fashioned winters were more severe than our modern winters in spite of what has been said to the contrary. Thus it was far from pleasant to have to be up at b a.m. and walk over the cobble stones to the yard of some inn from which the Christmas coach started. In the thirties the “Swan,” in Lad Lane, the ••Belle Sauvage,” the “White Horse tlie “Spread iiiagle,” and the Ang-el vere still famous London coaching inns; and at Christmas tune their yards were filled with shouting nostlers, dignified coachmen, ancl anxious passengers. In the boot were stowed good, honest, solid presents which the good folk of London were taking to their country friends; and there is still in existence a picture of the Norfolk coach setting out (in the late forties), loaded with turkeys, holly, and all kinds of Christmas fare. In the old days much brandy was drunk on these Christmas journeys to keep out the cold,” but back m the eighteenth century many travellers declared that a glass of cold ale warmed them better than spirits. The weather encountered was something to remember, and the state of the roads was terrible. For hours the unfortunate outside passengers sat numbed with cold or drenched with rain, whilst the people inside the coach shivered and tried to stretch their cramped limbs. The later coaches were top-heavy and frequently overturned and the early ones often sank into the mud up to the wheel axles, so bad were the roads. YULETIDE WEATHER.

As far as can be ascertained from the old records, Christmas was frequently snowy in bygone days. During the winter of 18i)6 the Liverpool coach had to fight its way through the snow drifts, and in tho severe winter of 18St> many coaches were abandoned. There is a picture of the old Cheltenham coach traversing a flooded road, drawn by six horses; and in the iNorth it frequently took six and even eight horses to extract a coach from the snowdrifts. One can realise what the outside passengers must have suffered in such weather; and it should be remembered that the journey was not over in a few hours like a modern railway journey. In the eighteenth century the mackintosh had not been invented.; and, as no cloth could possibly have withstood a day’s rain, it is. pretty obvious that the outside passengers must have been wet through to the skin before they reached the welcome shelter of the inn. Yet Christmas in the coaching days had charms which, alas 1 have gone for ever. Try to picture the arrival at the wayside inn of a fine, cold December evening, with the passengers and the coach people all filled with the true spirit of Christmas. How warm and comfortable the inn parlour must have looked, with its bright fire, its spotless white tablecloth, and its oak panelling. On the table the waiter soon placed a good round of English beef, and English ale brewed from pure malt and hops was to ho had in plenty. There was no wild rush ©veryone took his time, jiiiq jVlino hiost was moderate in his charges. Even if one had, through some nnschaneo of the road, to spend Christmas Day at the inn,' it was no great hardship. English roast beef and plum pudding were sure to appear on the table, and the landlord bustled in and greeted his guests with “A Merry Christmas to you all, gentlemen. God bless y oil 1 ” _____