Page:Omnibuses and Cabs.djvu/112

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Omnibuses and Cabs

inconvenience. The daily journey of many of their omnibuses were reduced in number, and coachmen and conductors were consequently unable to earn their usual wages.

Two years after the formation of the London General Omnibus Company there were about 1200 omnibuses in London, only a small proportion of which worked on Sundays. On the majority of roads they ran on week-days at intervals of five minutes, the fares being, in most cases, from twopence to ninepence. Many of the omnibus lines in existence at that time have been altered or curtailed in consequence of railway competition. Among these are the following long-distance routes:— Stratford and Oxford Street, Brentford and St. Paul's, Greenwich and Charing Cross, Richmond, Kew and Bank, Finchley and Bank, Angel and Hampton Court. The Richmond Conveyance Company had some excellent omnibuses, which ran from Richmond to the Bank, viâ Mortlake, Barnes, Hammersmith, and Piccadilly. They were built by Mr. H. Gray of Blackfriars.

In the early sixties it began to be recognized that, for men, the best way to see London was from the top of an omnibus. An anonymous poet