Note 90 — Chapter X

This allusion to the time occupied in the journey from Bristol to Plymouth is very interesting. It was then, it seems, a hundred years ago, a two days’ journey by the “machine” (which was, of course, the coach). Cookworthy intended to set out, it seems, on the Tuesday morning, and hoped to reach Plymouth by the machine some time on the Thursday. On my last journey, in fact while making these notes, I left Bristol at eight o’clock, and arrived at Plymouth at ten minutes after twelve, the journey occupying only four hours and ten minutes! What a contrast between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries this simple fact presents.