A History of Nova Scotia Page


Footnotes To
Book #3, The Road To Being Canada" (1815-1867)
Chapter 24, Transportation: Sleys, Gigs and Saddle Horses
TOC

FN1 Ch24 Edith J. Morley, The Life and Times of Henry Crabb Robinson (London: Dent, 1935), p. 121.

FN2 Ch24 To keep a carriage "meant a coachman, groom, stables and coach house as well as the cost of the vehicle itself and purchase (or hire) of horses." (Paul Johnson, The Birth of the Modern (New York: HarperCollins, 1991), p. 173.

FN3 Ch24 Murdoch, vol. 3, p. 316.

FN4 Ch24 Spatter, William Cobbett: The Poor Man's Friend (Cambridge University Press, 1982), vol. 1, p. 3.

FN5 Ch24 "Stage coach," in the sense the place to which the horse-drawn coach is going is reached in stages. For instance the 45 mile run from Halifax to Windsor in three stages (two stops) of 15 miles each. At each stage the horses would be changed.

FN6 Ch24 See, Murdoch, vol. 3, p. 389; Haliburton, vol. 1, p. 298.

FN7 Ch24 Evans, quotes a letter from Joe Howe dated September 12, 1840: "... Waggons are employed for the Conveyance of the Mails, and Passengers are accommodated in them, when the Mails are not heavy, and the Service can be performed in the time limited." (R. D. Evans, "Stage Coaches in N.S., 1815-1867," NSHS, #24, p. 119.)

FN8 Ch24 Paul Johnson, in his wonderful work, paints a picture of a coach stop, usually an Inns: "pestering peddlers in the coach yard, inexplicable delays ... elaborate rules about who had the right to sit inside. ... Above a certain class, women would not travel coach unless they had an escort or chaperon. ... If they did go alone, they often dressed as young men (and dressed their daughters as boys) both to avoid unwelcome attention and to spare their clothes." (Johnson recommended that one should read the part in Jane Austen's novel, Mansfield Park (1814) where Fanny Price makes her journey. (The Birth of the Modern, p. 173.)

FN9 Ch24 Evans, R. D., "Stage Coaches in N.S., 1815-1867," NSHS, #24, p. 109.

FN10 Ch24 Murdoch, Vol. 3, p. 339.

FN11 Ch24 Moorsom, Letters from Nova Scotia (London: Colburn & Bently, 1830) pp. 248-9.

FN12 Ch24 Evans, R. D., "Stage Coaches in N.S., 1815-1867," NSHS, #24, p. 110.

FN13 Ch24 In Haliburton we read that the service between Halifax and Annapolis ran "three times a week." (Vol. 1, p. 316.)

FN14 Ch24 Evans, R. D., "Stage Coaches in N.S., 1815-1867," NSHS, #24, p. 114.

FN15 Ch24 Moorsom, Letters from Nova Scotia (London: Colburn & Bently, 1830), pp. 247-8.

FN16 Ch24 Evans, "Stage Coaches in N.S., 1815-1867," NSHS, #24, p. 118. "The usual way to the Maritime colonies from the Province of Canada was to take the Grand Trunk Railway to its terminus at Portland, Maine, and then take a steamer to Saint John." (P. B. Waite, "A Visit to Nova Scotia and Louisbourg in 1860," NSHQ, Vol. #2:2, p. 130.) Then, we might add, the way to Halifax was by steamboat to Windsor and from there overland by carriage, at least up to 1858, when a rail line from Windsor to Halifax first existed.

FN17 Ch24 Though it seems that the road between Halifax and Pictou, by this time, 1841, could accommodate "four-horse coaches" most places and most times, with the thaw and freeze cycle of the spring of the year the going was difficult. Passengers would be obliged to get off while the stage coach and its horses were unstuck, often with the help of a farmer close by and who possessed a team of oxen. [Grant, Samuel Cunard: Pioneer of the Atlantic Steamship, (London: Abelard-Schuman, 1967), p. 118.]

FN18 Ch24 Grant, Samuel Cunard: Pioneer of the Atlantic Steamship, p. 126.

FN19 Ch24 New York was Boston's biggest competitor. Halifax did not stand a chance, many at Halifax blamed Cunard. But the loss of business at Halifax was not due to anything Cunard did or not. "... the rapid growth of New York since the 1820s was due, first, to the ease with which freight could be transported up the Hudson and along the Erie Canal to the Great Lakes and on to the Midwest, and, second, to the railroads pushing overland." (Grant, Samuel Cunard: Pioneer of the Atlantic Steamship, (London: Abelard-Schuman, 1967), p. 127.)

FN20 Ch24 Evans, R. D., "Stage Coaches in N.S., 1815-1867," NSHS, #24, pp. 124-5.

FN21 Ch24 R. D. Evans, in his rather complete article on the subject, "Stage Coaches in N.S., 1815-1867," (NSHS, #24) lays out the courses and the stages at p. 129.

FN22 Ch24 Evans, R. D., "Stage Coaches in N.S., 1815-1867," NSHS, #24, pp. 133-4.

_______________________________

Found this material Helpful?

_______________________________
[The Lion & The Lily -- Book 1 (1500-1763)]
[Settlement, Revolution & War -- Book 2 (1760-1815)]
[The Road To Being Canada -- Book 3 (1815-1867)]
[DATE TABLE]
[HISTORY JUMP PAGE]
[HOME]

_______________________________
www.blupete.com
2012 (2020)