Series 1 > Diary and general expenditure book of William Cunningham of Craigends ... kept chiefly from 1673 to 1680

INTRODUCTION
xvii
Country in Abraham’s days, and no less truly Cuningham’s
coaches were his horses. We see him, after administering a
friendly ‘tip’ to his youthful cousins at Renfrew School,
embark with his company and five horses on a ‘ voyage ’ across
the Clyde at Renfrew. Several of the travellers were ladies,
and to modem ideas it may seem puzzling to reconcile the
relative numbers of five steeds and nine excursionists. But to
the laird these numbers presented no difficulty, as on landing
from the ferry-boat, like Lochinvar,
‘ Light to the croup the fair lady he swung,
And light to the saddle before her he sprung.’
This was the order of things in these old days. To kirk,
to market, and when paying visits, the lady rode upon a
pillion or pad behind her husband or servant. Almost every
country house was provided with a leaping-on stone, such as
may still he seen at the gates of Duddingstone and other old
Scottish churchyards—an erection of wood or masonry for the
accommodation of ladies when mounting or alighting from
their horses. The cost of one of these stones may be seen in
the Diary.1 Even Queen Elizabeth, with all her dignity, did
not disdain to ride on a pillion from London to Exeter behind
the Lord Chancellor. But, indeed, between employing her own
palfrey and clinging to the Chancellor she had little choice, for
her reign was far advanced before the first coach was intro¬
duced into London. It was not until 1725 that the first
private carriage—constructed by a timber merchant in his own
yard—was seen in Glasgow. Cuningham had no such luxury,
and, even had he possessed it, what to do with it would have
been a difficulty, for the parish roads were in a condition
similar to that which the great military engineer set himself
to remedy in the Scottish Highlands, whose achievements are
commemorated in the familiar couplet—
‘ If you’d seen these roads before they were made,
You would lift up your hands and bless General Wade.’
Pp- 6, S3. 54-