NEWS RELEASES
Jolts, Jars and Potholes!
16th January 2007
In 2007 we have super highways, networks and chat rooms, enabling the world to be interconnected and the individual to meet up with strangers who themselves are surfing the superhighway. Two hundred years ago Britain had its own version, the super highway was the turnpike, the chat room was the coach, or the coaching inn and meeting up with strangers was more than likely as you bought a ticket rather than logged on. As for computer crashing, the 18th century had its own form of frustration as passengers suffered “Jolts and Jars” from travelling over “Potholes,” as graphically shown in one of the satirical prints used in the stunning new exhibition at Horsham Museum entitled Jolts, Jars and Potholes: Travelling in the Age of Coaching.
The exhibition, a first for Horsham museum, takes the visitor on a journey down through the highways and byways of Horsham, taking a look at rare survivals from coaching inns including 200 year old bills and tariffs. Whilst the threat of highway robbery was never far from the mind, protection could be bought with a superb naval blunderbuss on display.
Along with a unique 18th century road map, drawn not to show the way but to sort out a dispute between the Duke of Norfolk and Magdalene College, Oxford, to a first edition of Shelley’s Six Week Tour which humorously describes the difference between French and English coaches, the exhibition draws its net widely to capture the disparate nuggets that make up the world of coaching. From a 1734 portmanteau to satirical prints, from sale particulars of coaching inns to post horns and “yard of tin,” it is all here ready to delight the curious.
One feature of the exhibition Jolts Jars and Potholes are the stunning enlarged prints of William Hogarth, that great pictorial commentator on life as lived in 18th century England. Here the coaches form a backdrop to the dramas unfolding, the carrier of the “dramatis personae”, from a sweet innocent to London about to be debauched, to rather plump lady stepping into a coach with a helping hand, or penny pinching judges who overfill the coach causing the horse to collapse. The savagery and wit of these black and white prints are contrasted with the more humorous illustrations of the Regency period. These are then complimented by late Regency and Victorian prints showing the world of coaching.
The exhibition also reveals the story of Horsham’s turnpikes and coaching trade, from a first hand account of the first coach to Horsham from London to the actual act that created the town’s first turnpike in 1755. Jolts Jars and Potholes is a must for those interested in the real stories behind the late 19th and early 20th century romanticised view, a view portrayed in many a pub wall and biscuit tin, a view also looked at in an exhibition that ‘surfs’ the super highways of 18th century Britain.
The exhibition opens on 18th January and runs until 17th March 2007.
For further information please contact the Museum Curator Jeremy Knight.
Horsham Museum, 9 Causeway, Horsham, West Sussex RH12 1HE
Tel: (01403) 254959 Fax: (01403) 282594
Email: museum@horsham.gov.uk
http://www.horshammuseum.org/