The goods traffic to and from London was carried on by an enormous
waggon, which made the journey once or twice a week. Passengers
generally travelled by the Times coach, a hobby of Mr. Whitbread's.
It was horsed with four magnificent cream-coloured horses, and did
the fifty miles from Bedford to London at very nearly ten miles an
hour, or twelve miles actual speed, excluding stoppages for change.
Barring accidents, it was always punctual to a minute, and every
evening, excepting Sundays, exactly as the clock of St. Paul's
struck eight, it crossed the bridge. I have known it wait before
entering the town if it was five or six minutes too soon, a kind of
polish or artistic completeness being thereby given to a performance
in which much pride was taken.
The Bedford Charity was as yet hardly awake. No part of the funds
was devoted to the education of girls, but a very large part went in
almsgiving. The education of boys was almost worthless. The head-
mastership of the Grammar School was in the gift of New College,
Oxford, who of course always appointed one of their Fellows.
Including the income from boarders, it was worth about 3,000 pounds
a year.
Dissent had been strong throughout the whole county ever since the
Commonwealth.
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