The age of steam

Prior to the proliferation of the iron horse, travel was a misery. Roads, both in Europe and elsewhere, were terrible. Going to the North of England assured routes that were little more than “trackways for ponies” along which no cart could move. Even in Oxfordshire during the mid-eighteenth century, a distance of less than sixty miles from the capital, roads “were in a condition formidable to the bones of all who travelled on wheels.” Even if the surface was smooth, crime was a problem, stagecoach travel was dangerous and it was slow. It was not unheard of for horses to run away with their drivers after being startled. Bandits raised the threat of theft or worse—as poor Fynes Moryson discovered on his Grand Tour, and as many others realized when they confronted highwaymen such as the infamous Dick Turpin (1705–39) closer to home. A trip from Edinburgh to London took anywhere from four days on horseback to ten or more via stagecoach. Unless you had a substantial amount of time to spare and money to spend, this was no way to get around.1