EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY CARRIAGES
also considerable use of wheeled carriages. In Flanders, as in Holland, canals were frequent; and "most of the large towns" had "stage coaches, called diligences from their expedition."[1] A tourist in 1773 indicated how keen was the competition for passengers, and how impartial was the award of the prize. "We left Helvoet on Monday morning in a stage waggon. All the waggoners in town were summoned by a bell, then dice shaken to see who should get the fare. The price is fixed, therefore imposition is impossible."[2]
Post-wagons drawn by three horses went from most of the principal towns and communicated with all parts of Europe. The carriages were not unduly heavy and, says Nugent, were "as expeditious as our stage-coaches."[3] In going from Rotterdam to Antwerp one started at five in the morning; the price for one's seat was nine guilders, nine stivers, with fifteen pounds of baggage free. Everything above that weight was charged one stiver a pound.[4]
There were regular days for the arrival and departure of the post at and from Amsterdam, Brussels, The Hague, Rotterdam, and various other points in Europe.[5] Thus the post arrived at Amsterdam on Sunday "from Germany, Cologne, Cleves, Munster, Liège, Gelderland, etc." On Tuesdays it came "towards noon" from Spain, Portugal, France, Brabant, and Flanders. With Nugent's "Grand Tour" in hand, the guide-book that chiefly supplanted Misson's, the tourist could easily mark out his route and select the proper conveyance. If he were at Arnheim, he would find that there starts for "Cologne in Germany, every Thursday morning a post-waggon from the Golden Swan with goods and passengers to Emmerick, Wesel, Dusseldorp, Solingen, Elberfelt, and reaches Cologne by Saturday. On Saturday the post-waggon sets out from Cologne for Arnheim from the Red Goose in the Egelstein, and passing through the above-mentioned places arrives at Arnheim by Tuesday."[6] Likewise from Arnheim, we are informed, there sets out for "Frankfort on the Mayn, from the third of March till winter every Sunday morning a
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