Here (today and continuing through the weekend) is what I was researching yesterday, when I came across Mr. Parkinson and his information on the costs of waggons and carts.

All of this is information I found in a book called the Maryland Geological Survey, which was published in 1899.

In this first part, we read about the earliest days of horse-drawn travel in Maryland:

At the time of the French and Indian War [1754–1763], Governor Sharpe’s* coach-and-four was out of place upon any other than the main road through the province. In fact, before the Revolution carriages were few in number, and rarely used except in the finest weather. First-rate saddle-horses were much in demand, as the newspapers of the time plainly show. Fox-hunting and horse-racing were among the principal diversions, and the raising and importing of blooded horses received much attention. Members of the Assembly, lawyers, actors, and parsons, and indeed all to whom time was important and speed a necessity, preferred the activity of a Thoroughbred to the lumbering “chariot” of these early times.

In Annapolis the use of coaches grew apace. The family coach, with its trappings and outriders, was a matter of pride in which the society of Annapolis turned out to every horse-race, or drove to Marlboro to see the latest company of players. “They have light and elegant carriages which are drawn by fine horses,” is the comment of the Abbé Robin ** on this phase of Annapolitan life, while Eddis writes just before the Revolution: “Our races, just concluded, continued four days, … and surprising as it may appear, I assure you there are few meetings in England better attended or where more capital horses are exhibited.” ***

* Horatio Sharpe (1718–1790) was Maryland’s colonial governor from 1753 until 1769.

** Robin’s Nouveau Voyage dans l’Amerique Septentrionale was published in Philadelphia in 1782.

*** William Eddis’s Letters from America: Historical and Descriptive: Comprising Occurrences from 1769 to 1777 Inclusive was published in London in 1792.