I was recently asked to speak to the Minnesota chapter of the Jane Austen Society of North America about “The Pleasures and Perils of Travel in Jane 
Austen’s time.” I thought I would share just a portion of that presentation with you here. Coach travel was a topic I had researched to write my new series, especially The Innkeeper of Ivy Hill. I am not an expert by any means, but I have read many books on the subject, like Cecil Aldin’s The Romance of the Road. “Romance of the road” conjures up images of traveling though beautiful countryside in a sleek carriage, pulled by fleet horses driven by an expert coachman, with rest stops in welcoming inns. But was travel in the 19th century really romantic?
Stage and mail coaches were the primary means of long-distance travel in England for about 200 years, from approximately the mid-17th century until the advent of trains in the mid-19th century. Traveling was difficult, and the roads were often a muddy, rutted mess. In 1770 Arthur Young wrote, “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.”
Travel was so tedious, dangerous, and expensive, that the majority of people traveled no farther than 14 miles from home. And once a person made a journey to visit friends or relatives, they tended to stay for weeks, even months. For example, Cassandra Austen frequently visited her brother Edward for weeks at a time.
In the 19th century, travel improved somewhat due to better roads (thanks to turnpike trusts—forerunners of toll roads), lighter and better designed coaches, more rapid change of teams, and a concerted effort by magistrates to crack down on highwaymen. With these improvements, a stagecoach could go as fast as 6 miles per hour. Royal Mail coaches went even faster, reaching speeds of up to 10 miles per hour. This reduced journey times significantly. For example, in the 18th century, the sixty miles from Oxford to Southampton took twelve long hours. By the 19th, only seven hours.
Traveling in Style
Different social classes used various types of vehicles for long-distance travel. The poor, if they traveled at all, were more likely to walk or go by cart or wagon. The middle classes traveled in mail and stagecoaches, or by “post,” and only the wealthiest owned their own private carriages, such as a barouche, chaise-and-four, or a “Traveling chariot.”
Stagecoaches
Stagecoaches stopped at various “stages” to pick up and drop off passengers, change to fresh horses, etc. Stage lines allowed for travel beyond the set mail routes. Stagecoaches were crowded, carrying up to four passengers on the inside and eight (or more) on the outside. Stagecoaches were less expensive than mail coaches but slower as well.
Royal Mail
Dozens of mail coaches left London six nights a week, loaded with bags of mail, parcels, and paying passengers. Mail coaches carried four passengers inside and six outside. They were faster but also more expensive than stagecoaches. The mail coaches were owned by the Post Office and allowed to pass through toll gates without stopping. They were protected by armed guards employed by the post office and responsible for the safe delivery of the mail.
The Quicksilver, the fastest long-distance mail coach in the kingdom.
Post Chaise
Traveling by “post” was favored by those who could afford their own private carriages or to hire one. The horses pulling the carriages would be rented and changed at posts along the way. A chaise was driven by postillion (mounted on the lead horse(s)) and carried two-three people comfortably, sometimes with an outside perch for a servant. Even though private, unmarried genteel women rarely traveled alone. In her letters, Jane Austen mentions adjusting travel plans so that she and her sister will have a man to accompany them.
Mrs. Collins, you must send a servant with them. You know I always speak my mind, and I cannot bear the idea of two young women travelling post by themselves. It is highly improper.…”
— Lady Catherine De Bourgh, Pride and Prejudice
Comfort
Passenger comfort depended to a large extent on the weather and the size and personal hygiene of your fellow passengers. Passengers had something like 14-16 inches of space each, with an eighteen inch share of the knee room, and could only hope that their fellow passengers were slight and short. Lord William Pitt Lennox said, “It is not very pleasant to make one of four, the other three consisting of a stout farmer, rude both in health and manners, a fat nurse with a squalling child, and an elderly invalid who insisted in having both windows up.”
However, others found pleasure—and yes, even romance—in the journey. Some passengers enjoyed sitting on the roof in good weather to better admire the view. In the summer, coaches on the London to Brighton run would be loaded with young bucks and their lady friends with picnics to eat as they went.
Dangers
Travelers were often advised to write their wills before setting out, because road accidents were common. Carriages were high off the ground, pulled by sometimes fickle animals, and driven by sometimes reckless coachmen. Cartoonists of the day enjoyed drawing pictures such as this, but accidents were no laughing matter as many died or were seriously injured.
Storms, floods, snow, and fog all brought with them their own dangers.
Outside seats exposed a traveler to additional hazards, and it was not unusual for passengers to fall off a lurching coach or to be struck by a flying object. Others died of exposure in winter. Not very romantic, is it? It is telling, I think, that Jane Austen included a plea for travelers’ safety in one of her beautiful prayers:
May the sick and afflicted, be now, and ever thy care; and heartily do we pray for the safety of all that travel by Land or by Sea…”
—Jane Austen
If your Memorial Day or summer plans include a car trip or other travel, I hope you will enjoy the “romance of the road” and have a safe journey as well.
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Thank you for the post… It is so interesting and so funny 🙂
How you write here about storms, floods and snow, I remembered the scene from Onegin ( 1999 – I love this film! ) how he traveled wrapped in furs… But thanks God – summer is here now 🙂
I’ll never complain about air travel again.
Very interesting! Thank you for sharing your knowledge. I’ll try to quit complaining about our lengthy commute to church each week. 😉
Love this! It’s always fascinating to me how people had the courage to travel back then in spite of the discomfort and multitude of dangers!
Great article! I really enjoyed your descriptive passages in The Innkeeper of Ivy Hill.
Oh my…what an interesting post. I often wondered how travel in Austen’s day could be comfortable. I had no idea there were so many types of coaches. Now that I do think about it, as man likes to travel, there would need to be a way. How dangerous at times. No wonder Mr. Darcy called to mind that Elizabeth wouldn’t want to be near home…“And what is fifty miles of good road? Little more than half a day’s journey. Yes, I call it a very easy distance.”