Note 175 — ARMTHORPE BELLS.[173]

The Fly was the name of a coach that commenced running, in the year 1768, from Leeds to London, during the winter season, and performed its journey in two days and a half, at that period considered very expeditious travelling. Probably it derived its name from this extraordinary swiftness. The advertisement of this coach, inserted in the Leeds Intelligencer, of January 3, 1769, after stating the fares, the places from whence it set out, &c. &c., concludes in the usual manner, viz. "Performed (if God permit) by Messrs. Stokes, Benton and Co;" from this expression coaches, in those days, were by some irreverently styled "God-permits." As far back as 1669 a coach called the "Flying Coach" went from Oxford to London in one day. Perhaps any vehicle became entitled to the appellation that could go along at a moderate trot. In 1791 were advertised "New Flying Stage-Waggons."