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and returns every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, lays at the Antelope in Salisbury, going Up and Down: To carry Six inside Passengers, each to pay

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Outside Passengers and Children in the Lap, Half Fare as above; each Inside Passenger allowed Fourteen Pounds Luggage; all above, to Taunton Two pence per Pound, and so in Proportion to any part of the Road.

No Money, Plate, Jewels, or Writings, will be accounted for if Lost, unless Entered as such, and Paid for accordingly.

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Performed by JOHN WHITMASH.

THOMAS LILEY.

The following is a copy of an original handbill:

YORK Four Dayes

Stage Coach

Begins on Monday the 18 of March 1678.

11 that are desirous to pass from London to York, or return from York to London or any other Place on that Road; Let them repair to the Black Swan in Holborn in London and the Black Swan in Cony-Street in York

At both which places they may be received in a Stage-Coach every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, which performs the whole journey in Four days (if God permit) and sets forth by Six in the Morning

And returns from York to Doncaster in a Forenoon, to Newark in a day and a half, to Stamford in Two days, and from Stamford to London in Two days more. Henry Moulen Performed by Margaret Gardner Francis Gardner

In the Hereford Journal of January, 1775, are two advertisements from which it appears that stages were then known as machines, which did not ply, but fly on their journeys. If we consider the state of the roads, the size of the vehicles, and the pace at which they travelled, the word flying (lucus a non lucendo) seems singularly inappropriate. When travelling by

coaches had reached a state of perfection, proprietors modestly announced their vehicles to run.

1775, Jan. 12

HEREFORD MACHINE,

In a day and a half, twice a week, continues flying from the Swan and Falcon in Hereford, Monday and Thursday mornings, and from the Bolt in Tun, Monday and Thursday evenings.-Fare 19 shillings: outsides, half.

1775, Jan. 5

For the conveniency of sending presents at this season of the year, and for the quick conveyance of Passengers to and from London,

PRUEN'S MACHINE

will begin flying as follows:

HEREFORD MACHINE,

In a day and a half, twice a week, sets out from the Redstreak-tree Inn in Hereford, Tuesday and Thursday mornings at 7 o'clock; and from the Swan with Two Necks, Lad Lane, London, every Monday and Wednesday evenings. Insides, £1; outsides, half price.

In 1778 a similar vehicle is styled the diligence:

HEREFORD DILIGENCE

3 times a week,

Leaves at 7 in the morning; reaches London next day to dinner time. Fares: £1 12s., with 10 lbs. of luggage.

The following extract from Chamberlayne's State of England for 1692 gives an official statement of the expense and mode of travelling in those days, by those who did not use their own horses:

Moreover, if any gentleman desire to ride post to any principal town in England, post-horses are always in readiness (taking no horse without the consent of his owner), which in other kings' reigns was not duly observed; and only 3d. is demanded for every English mile, and for every stage to the postboy 4d. for conducting. Besides this excellent convenience of conveying letters and men on horse-back, there is of late such an admirable commodiousness, both for men and women of better rank, to travel from London to almost any town of England, and to almost all the villages near this great city, that the like has not been known in the world, and that is by stage coaches, wherein one may be transported to any place, sheltered from foul weather and foul

ways, free from endamaging one's health or body by hard jogging or overviolent motion; and this not only at a low price, as about a shilling for every five miles, but with velocity and speed, as that the posts in some foreign countries make not more miles in a day; for the stage-coaches called “Flyingcoaches" make forty or fifty miles in a day; as from London to Oxford or Cambridge, and that in the space of twelve hours, not counting the time for dining, setting forth not too early nor coming in too late.-Chamberlayne's Present State, 1692, Part ii. p. 206.

And I find this same notice continued in all the editions of the work down to 1748, the last I happen to have. The later editions add, that these coaches "now perform sometimes 70, 80, or 100 miles, to Southampton, Bury, Cirencester, and Norwich."

The following is a transcript of a MS. entry on a fly-leaf at the end of a Jewish calendar for the year 5458. The book is a thin 12mo., printed "at the Theater, Oxford," A.D. " 1698," with which year the Jewish date corresponds, and it contains the Christian and Jewish calendars in parallel pages. It appears from the autograph of "Wm. Stukely, M. D., 1736," which is written on the inside of the cover of the book, that it once belonged to that antiquary. The handwriting of the entries resembles that of Thomas Hearne.

A. D. 1698.

Post-chaise from Oxford to London
Post-boy-

Expences at the Red Lion: Dinner, Wine, one bottle of old
Port, and fruit

Waiter

Expences at Half Moon Tavern: Salmon, lobster sauce, a
bottle of Port

Bed and Chamberlain

Post-chaise to Oxford, and Dinner-Shoulder and leg of
House Lamb, and two bottles of Wine, with asparagrass

Play House Exps.

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RIDDLES FOR THE POST OFFICE.

The following ludicrous direction to a letter was copied verbatim from the original and interesting document :

too dad Tomas
hat the ole oke

otchut

I O Bary pade

Sur plees to let ole feather have this sefe.

The letter found the gentleman at "The Old Oak Orchard, Tenbury." In another letter, the writer, after a severe struggle to express "Scotland," succeeded at length to his satisfaction, and wrote it thus: "stockling." A third letter was sent by a woman to a son who had settled in Tennessee, which the old lady had thus expressed with all phonetic simplicity, "10 S C."

The following is an exact copy of the direction of a letter mailed a few years ago by a German living in Lancaster County, Pa.:

Tis is fur old Mr. Willy wot brinds de Baber in Lang Kaster ware ti gal is gist rede him assume as it cums to ti Pushtufous.

meaning:

This is for old Mr. Willy, what prints the paper in Lancaster, where the jail is. Just read him as soon as it comes to the Post Office.

Inclosed was an essay against public schools.

JOE MILLER'S TOMB.

Joe Miller was buried in St. Clement's burial ground, Portugal street, Clare Market, London, with an epitaph over him by Stephen Duck. The epitaph and the stone itself were, about the beginning of the present century, in jeopardy of obliteration, but for the compassion of Mr. Bulger, the grave-digger; and being

still in a very bad condition, Mr. Buck a few years afterwards repaired it. The following is the inscription:

Here Lye the Remains of
honest Jo. Miller,

who was

a tender Husband,

a sincere Friend,

a facetious Companion,
and an excellent Comedian.

He departed this Life the 15th day of
August, 1738, aged 54 years.

If humour, wit, and honesty could save
The humorous, witty, honest from the grave,
The grave had not so soon this tenant found,
Whom honesty, and wit, and humour crowned;
Could but esteem and love preserve our breath,
And guard us longer from this stroke of death,
The stroke of death on him had later fell,
Whom all mankind esteemed and loved so well.
S. DUCK.

From respect to social worth,

mirthful qualities, and histrionic excellence,
commemorated by poetic talent, humble life,
the above inscription, which Time ·
had nearly obliterated, has been restored
and transferred to this stone by order of
MR. JARVIS BUCK, Churchwarden.
A.D. 1816.

In consequence of some alterations his grave is likely to be disturbed; but surely "Old Joe" ought not to be carted away, and shot as rubbish. Some plain memorial of him might soon be raised, if an appeal were made to the public; and if every one whose conscience told him he had ever been indebted to Miller would subscribe only a penny to the memorial fund, the requisite sum would soon be collected.

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