1782: Journeys of a German in England by Carl Philip Moritz

This morning the six of us who shared the captain's cabin asked to be put ashore a little before the ship reached Dartford, which is about ten English miles from London.
This is the usual course taken by those who sail up the Thames. because of the astonishing mass of seaborne traffic growing more and more congested as the city is approached.
Often it takes several days for the ship to work a passage through those last few miles.
Passengers who therefore wish to lose no time, and to avoid such other inconveniences as frequent stops and buffeting by other craft, prefer to travel the last few miles by land, possibly in a postchaise, the cost of which is not very dear, especially if three persons share the same vehicle, then the three pay no more than one.
This is allowed by Act of Parliament.
A rousing cheer went up for us from the German crew of our ship, after the fashion they have copied from the English sailors.
The shore where we disembarked was white and chalky.
We had to get to Dartford on foot.
First going up a fairly steep hill which brought us straight from the river to our first English village.
With this, I was pleasantly surprised - with the neatness of its domestic architecture, red brick walls and flat roofs - especially when I compared these with the huts of our Prussian peasantry. So we trailed along from one village to another like a caravan, each of us with his staff.
Several people meeting us stared as if surprised by our appearance and manner of progress.
We went by a small wood where a group of gipsies had encamped round a fire under a tree.
The countryside grew ever more beautiful as we went our solitary way.
The Earth is not the same everywhere.
How different did I find these living hedges, the green of them and of the trees - this whole paradisiacal region - from ours and all others that I have seen!
How incomparable the roads!
How firm the pathway beneath me!
With every step I took, I was aware I trod on English ground!
We breakfasted in Dartford, where I saw my first English soldier in his red uniform with his haircut short behind and combed forward in a fringe on his forehead.
Also a couple of boys boxing in the street.
Then we separated so as to occupy two post chaises - three of us in each, with a little inconvenience.
To hire one cost a shilling a mile.
These vehicles may be compared with our ‘Extraposten’ because they may be hired at any time, but a post chaise is built in a pattern, both trim and light so that you are hardly aware of it as it rolls along the firm well made road.
It has windows in front and at both sides, the horses are good and the postilions always drive at full trot.
Our postilion had short hair, a round hat, brown coat of fairly fine cloth, and a bunch of flowers at his breast.
Every now and then, when he was making good speed, he turned and smiled at us as if to invite our approval.
All this time the gorgeous landscape, so delightful to my eyes, flew past with the speed of an arrow; up hill, down into a wood, out of the wood - every few minutes; then another glint of the Thames with the masts of its ships and on again through fascinating towns and villages.
I was much astonished at the great signboards hanging on beams across the street from one house to another at various spots.
These somewhat resembled town gates - which at first I took them to be. - but this is not so; they do no more than indicate the entrance to an inn.
So with one vision after another in such quick succession as to put the mind in a whirl we arrived near to Greenwich and to the prospect of London.