File:Stage Waggon 1808 (14758693956).jpg

Identifier: brightonroadclas00harp (find matches)
Title: The Brighton road : the classic highway to the south
Year: 1922 (1920s)
Authors: Harper, Charles G. (Charles George), 1863-1943
Subjects: Horses Brighton (England) -- Description and travel England -- Social life and customs
Publisher: London : C. Palmer
Contributing Library: Webster Family Library of Veterinary Medicine
Digitizing Sponsor: Tufts University

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nded and authoritative notice isfound in 1746, when the widow of the Lewes carrieradvertised in The Lewes Journal of December 8th thatshe was continuing the business : Thomas Smith, the Old Lewes Carrier, being dead, THE BUSINESS IS NOW CONTINUED BY HIS WIDOW, MARY smith, who gets into the George Inn, in the Borough,Southwark, every Wednesday in the afternoon, and setsout for Lewes every Thursday morning by eight oclock,and brings Goods and Passengers to Lewes, Fletching,Chayley, Newick and all places adjacent at reasonable rates. Performed (if God permit) by MARY SMITH. We mav perceive by these earlv records that the real ^ ** ii original way down to the Sussex coast was by theCroydon, Godstone, East Grinstead and Lewes route,and that its outlet must have been Newhaven, which,despite its name, is so very ancient a place, and was aport and harbour when Brighthelmstone was but alisher-village. That is the only glimpse we get of the widow Smithand her waggon ; but the George Inn, in the
Text Appearing After Image:
14 THE BRIGHTON ROAD Borough, that shs got into, is still in the BoroughHigh Street. It is a fine and flourishing remnant ofan ancient galleried hostelry of the time of Chaucer,and it is characteristic of the continuity of Englishsocial, as well as political history that, althoughwaggons and coaches no longer come to or set outfrom the George, its spacious yard is now a railwayreceiving-office for goods, where the railway vans,those descendants of the stage-waggon, thunderouslycome and go all day. It will be observed that the traffic in those dayswent to and from Southwark, which was then thegreat business centre for the carriers. Not yet wasthe Brighton road measured from Westminster Bridge,for the adequate reason that there was no bridge atWestminster until 1749 : only the ferrv from theHorseferry Road to Lambeth. Widow Smiths waggon halted at Lewes, and it isnot until ten years later than the date of her advertise-ment that we hear of the Brighthelmstone conveyance.The first was th

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