Here seated, as if in a chariot, the fare May the prospect survey, and enjoy the fresh air, And the ladies in order their ringlets dispense, In due form at the glass in the new Diligence.
Then comes the Omnibus, four on each side, In safety and comfort eight persons may ride, And in six hours’ time, when started from hence, They at Brighton arrive in the new Diligence.
Through Clapham and Mitcham and Reigate the route, By Crawley, and Cuckfield, without any doubt, Far the most pleasant road, in every sense, To the Royal Clarence Hotel runs the new Diligence.
As economy now is the rage of the day, One guinea a seat is the price in coupé, The fare in the omni, sixteen shillings expense, Outside, half a sovereign, on the new Diligence.
I have only to add that the public will find Extreme expedition, with safety combined, And most civil attention, avoiding offence, To the patrons of Shillibeer’s new Diligence.
Poor Shillibeer, however, came to an unfortunate crisis in his affairs in this very year, when the omnibuses he put on the road between London and Greenwich had been running in ruinous competition with the new London and Greenwich Railway, and had brought him so very low, financially, that he was unable to meet the demands of the Stamp Office for the duty payable on the vehicles. The Office seized his omnibuses, and presumably his Diligence as well, for we hear nothing more of it, and his mellifluous songster no longer enlivened the pages of the public prints with his rhymes. There was a Diligence on the Brighton Road in the following year, but it was owned by another firm, who made a better performance, for their conveyance did the journey in 5¼ hours, and the fares were much cheaper. Passengers by coupé paid 16s., by second class 12s., and outsides only 8s.
Meanwhile, “Post Coaches” and “Light Post Coaches” were at the head of the coaching hierarchy. Introduced long before mail-coaches came into being, they were then the most expensive and exclusive, as they were also the speediest, of public conveyances, and ranked next after the post-chaises. They were expensive chiefly because they provided only limited accommodation; originally only three or four inside, and one or two out, with no luggage, except small trunks or parcels. The term “Post” had no reference to the Post Office, but was intended to give at once an idea of speed and an approach to that absolute privacy only obtained by specially hiring a post-horse or a post-chaise. Indeed, the earliest Post Coaches not a little resembled a post-chaise hired by a party of friends for the journey. In securing a seat by post-coach, the traveller, in view of the limited accommodation, mathematically reduced his chances of meeting and journeying with vulgar and objectionable characters; while the higher fare tended to produce the same effect by eliminating all but those who were rich enough to afford the cost, and were therefore, by an easily understood process of reasoning, likely to be cleanly and well-mannered. How highly objectionable the company in a stage-coach might and could be we have the testimony of many travellers to tell, from Dean Swift to John Wesley and Macready, the actor. Their trials and experiences are mostly recorded elsewhere in these pages; but two examples may take their place here to illustrate the reason why Post Coaches flourished so greatly.