London to Edinburgh in 2 days by coach

Historical Context Note

Litencyc Editors (Independent Scholar - Europe)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.06: English Writing and Culture of the Romantic Period, 1789-1837.
Vol. editors: Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Daniel Robinson (Widener University)

Domains

Transportation

Dates

Date of occurrence 1832

Places

United Kingdom (Location)

Resources

Save to Bookshelf

The most important factor in the speed of travel from one city to another, in this period just before the expansion of the railways, was the state of the roads. In 1753, when stagecoaches were first introduced between London and Edinburgh, the journey took two weeks. However, the innovative road-building technologies of John Macadam were able to cut this dramatically. He used the weight of the traffic itself to press stones and chips into a solid surface underneath, in a method similar to that used today. In 1832, the journey by stagecoach from London to Edinburgh had been cut to only two days.

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

101 words

Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "London to Edinburgh in 2 days by coach". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 August 2013 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=673, accessed 19 April 2024.]

Save this article