Old Cumbria Gazetteer |
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| road, Carlisle to Glasgow | ||
| Carlisle to Glasgow | ||
| Glasgow to Carlisle | ||
| A74 | ||
| locality:- | Carlisle | |
| civil parish:- | Carlisle (formerly Cumberland) | |
| county:- | Cumbria | |
| locality type:- | route | |
| locality:- | Glasgow | |
| country:- | Scotland | |
| locality type:- | route | |
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| route parts:- |  Carlisle to Gretna |
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| evidence:- | old text:- Harper 1907 item:- mail coach |
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| source data:- | Guidebook, The Manchester and Glasgow Road, by Charles G Harper,
published by Chapman and Hall Ltd, London, 1907. HP01p108.txt Page 108:- ... "Among the regular coachmen, John Reed took a very high place. He was a stout and very silent man: all for his horses and nothing to his passengers. He drove the Glasgow Mail from Carlisle to Abington, never tasted ale or wine, and never had an accident. This was the more remarkable as Mr. Johnstone of Hallheaths, owner of Charles XII., horsed the Mail along one stage with nothing but thoroughbreds; and, had they "taken off," not even Reed, strong-wristed though he was, could have held them in." "John Bryden was the very reverse of John Reed, and full of jollity and good stories on the box. The two Drydens were even more dashing in their style: one had the art of teaching his horses to trot when most men would have had them on the gallop; the other was a wonderful singer. Whenever the Mail reached a long ascent and he had to" HP01p109.txt Page 109:- "slacken speed, he would beguile the way with "She Wore a Wreath of Roses," or "I Know a Flower within my Garden Growing," in a rich tenor that would have secured him a good concert-room engagement in these times." "Another notable coachman was "Little Isaac Johnson." He kept on the box for thirty-five years, and never had an accident. He was supreme with a kicking horse, and always took care to make him near-side leader. When such an one was put there, he could punish him more severely, and liked to hit restive animals inside the thigh. He could "fairly wale them up," if they continued to rebel." "..." "Jack Pooley was a great character. When he retired from the box, he joined the Yeomanry and entered his horse for" HP01p110.txt Page 110:- "a cavalry plate at a race-meeting. Two of the conditions of entry were that it must never have won ~50, and also must be half-bred. Some objections being raised, it became necessary to examine him before the committee. To the first question, whether his horse had ever won ~50, he replied "No, indeed! but he's helped to lose many a fifty - he ran three years in an opposition coach." The next question was "What is he by, Mr. Pooley?" "By?" said Jack. "I should say he was by a shorthorn bull, he's such a devil of a roarer." The answers, we are told, were considered eminently satisfactory." "..." HP01p146.txt Page 146:- "..." "THE greatest figure in the coaching world up north was Teather, who was principal contractor for mails and stage coaches in all that lengthy territory of 166 miles between Lancaster and Glasgow. The careers of the Teathers reflect the fortunes of the road. John Teather, the father, was originally landlord of the "Royal Oak," Keswick, which does not stand on the main route to the north; but he left the comparative obscurity of that Lakeland town for the bustling activities of Carlisle, and from that strategic coaching position worked the coaches sixty-five miles south to Lancaster, and 101 miles north, to Glasgow." "Eight mails entered and left Carlisle daily, and seven stage-coaches; and eighty horses were kept for the proper working of them. Teather and his son managed this important business: the younger succeeding to it in 1837 and, in the general wreck brought about by railway extension, living to end where his father had begun, as landlord of the "Royal Oak" at Keswick." "..." "It was in December, 1846, that the first railway ran into Carlisle from the south. It was the Lancaster and Carlisle" HP01p147.txt Page 147:- "Railway, long since absorbed into the London and North-Western. In September, 1847, the Caledonian Railway, from Carlisle to Moffat, carried on the new methods another stage, and in the following February it was further extended to Glasgow and Edinburgh. It was necessarily the death-blow of the coaches along the main route. My old friend, Mr. W. H. Duignan, of Walsall, who remembered that time, travelled from Carlisle to Glasgow by the last mail-coach. He went to the "Bush" hotel and booked a seat for the occasion." "The bookkeeper remarked, when he gave his name, "I think I have often booked you before, sir, have I not?"" ""Yes," the traveller replied." ""Then, sir," rejoined the clerk, refusing the money, "Mr. ---" - mentioning the name of the hotel-keeper - "will feel it a pleasure, if you will accept a seat, and order anything you please, at his expense."" "My friend declared that it was the most gentlemanly-dying mail he ever knew." "..." HP01p152.txt Page 152:- "..." "It is a flat, featureless country that stretches north from Stanwix across the nine miles to the Border-line. Miserable villages that are merely collections of gaunt cottages little better than hovels, often built of "dubbin," i.e. clay and straw, occur at intervals. Nearly all of comparatively modern date, they point unmistakably to the fact that it is not so very long since to live in the Debatable Land was hazardous, and not to be thought of by the law-abiding. Very well indeed for moss-trooping vagabonds and cow-stealers, but not for the responsible, or those who wished for a quiet life." |
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