New Bye-laws for flys - Coaches Still Running
Having in chap. 39 referred to the adoption of new bye-laws by the St. Leonards Commissioners in 1848, for the better regulation of flys and hackney carriages, it will be apropos to give some account of a similar proceeding on the part of the Hastings Commissioners in the same year. On the first Monday of the new year a special meeting of the latter was held for the purpose of rescinding so much of the bye-laws of 1835 as related to the regulation of flys. Our old townsmen, Mr. C. J. Womersley, together with Mr. Yates, objected to the proposal as being unnecessary, and as calculated to evoke a strong-opposition. from the fly drivers and proprietors. Mr. Payne argued that the existing laws were obsolete and that the parties directly interested in the question were not opposed to the proposed alteration. Mr. Harvey supported the statement of the previous speaker, and added that he had himself met the flymen at the Marine Hotel and had ascertained that they were quite satisfied with the proposed new conditions. The discussion closed with the carrying of the motion. It would appear, however, that Commissioners Womersley and Yates had pretty fairly guaged(sic) the spirit in which the flymen would receive the contemplated changes; for, while some of them were sullen over the matter, others made known their objections with more freedom than politeness. Hence there was written in the autumn of that year the following observations:-
“FLIES and FLYs. Naturalists usually divide their insects into two species—the aerial and the earthly. The former are endowed with wings for the purpose of flight, and the latter (in the present case) are possessed of wheels wherewith to travel the highways and byeways of this terrestrial sphere. The one species found its way into Egypt about the year 436, and the other first appeared in England about 1823. The vexatious activity of the winged series can be attested in various ways, whilst the inconvenience caused by the other species sometimes arises from its non-activity. Humanity has but to arrange for a siesta, or afternoon nap, to provoke into hasty action the little winged-pest which chooses the nasal organ for its perch; and it will usually insist in occupying and re-occupying that elevated position to the owner's discomfort. This, of course, is one of the ills that flesh is heir to, whilst another ill that inflicts humanity is that which comes from the other species of fly. Singly or collectively these flys have ostensible owners who have been in the habit of giving to distances too full a measure, and claiming as compensation too full a fare. To remedy this evil the Hastings Commissioners have been lately much exercised in the measuring of roads for the adjustment of charges, granting of licenses, taking cognizance of careless driving, and arranging the stands. The owners of the flys are a ‘peculiar people,’ who occasionally speak in an unknown tongue. In dealing with them, therefore, the difficulties of the Hastings Commissioners, as well as of these of the St. Leonards board, have not been few nor far between, but they have succeeded in separating the earthly species in such manner as that the drivers cannot now hold ‘converse sweet’ as was their wont aforetime. Yet this notwithstanding, we are still impressed with the idea that what one sort of fly is to mortals the other is to the Commissioners — a constant plague.”
From fly-drivers to coachmen is an appropriate transition, and I will therefore add to the accounts which I gave of the latter when writing of the years 1846 and ’7, in which was described the withdrawal from the road of the stage-coaches which were driven by the said coachmen, in consequence of the traffic having been diverted to the London, Brighton and South-coast Railway. But first let me say that at the beginning of the year, Mr. Sutton, the courteous and attentive station-master at St. Leonards, was transferred to the more important station at, Portsmouth, his vacated post being occupied by Mr. Cane, who had taken for his wife a daughter of Mr. Francis Emary, formerly a well-known lessee of the Swan Hotel.
Although it was no longer profitable to horse a daily coach to London, there were still some persons who had either a dread of the railway or a desire of seeing the country from the top of a coach and these, it was thought, would be sufficiently numerous to support one coach to and from the metropolis thrice a week. Acting on this supposition, Mr. Watson, the driver and past-proprietor of the Express, after “lying up in ordinary“ during the winter, re-commenced running his coach to London on Monday, the 10th of April, returning to Hastings journey on alternate days until the end of November, when the coach was again taken off for the winter. The coach started on its first journey in the midst of a snowstorm, there having been also a considerable fall of snow on the preceding Sunday. Such weather on the 10th of April was, of course, regarded as unseasonable, but not more so than the snow, sleet and cold rain, with an easterly gale, which are besetting the 6th of April, 1887, while I am writing — a condition in exact accordance with the forecast published in the Gazette several days in advance, and not in accordance with the forecast issued from the Meteorological Office only the evening before. But, to return to the coach, it also made its first journey of the season to London on that memorable day when the great Chartist demonstration was held, and when 170,000 special constables were sworn in to assist in preventing a riot. How many persons took seats on the coach that morning I cannot say, as I did not see them, but I know that Hastings and St. Leonards were fuller of visitors at that time than is usual in the month of April, many of them, following the example of the Queen, having got away from London under the fear of .a possible insurrection, The coach did the journey. in from 7 to 8 hours, which was about the same rate of speed as that of the four-horse mail for which it was said that the Postmaster-General had to pay a greater proportionate price than for any other mail out of London. What would people to who time is of importance think of such a rate of traveling in the present day? Railway traveling may be less interesting to such as like to see the country, and it may present but few features as materials for the novelist or the poet; but really we have much to be thankful for in the convenience brought about through the instrumentality of science -
