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Notes and Queries, Number 05, December 1, 1849 by Various
page 13 of 63 (20%)
wonderful account of Schultz's journey of fifty miles in six hours, a
hundred years ago. I am inclined to think the explanation consists in a
misprint. The distances are given in figures, and not in words at
length, if we may trust your correspondent's note on p. 35. May not a 1
have "dropped" before the 6, so that the true lection will be, "dass wir
auf dem ganzen Wege kaum 16 Stunden gefahren sind"? This time
corresponds with the time of return, on which he set out in the evening
(at 8?) of one day and arrived at noon the next. It was also most likely
that the spring carriages of fifteen years later date should go much
faster than the old springless vehicles. Any one who has corrected
proofs will appreciate the "dropping" of a single type, and may be ready
to admit it on such circumstantial evidence.

I may remark that 1749 was still Old Style in England; but the German
Schultz, in dating his expedition on _Sunday_, 10 Aug. 1749, has used
the _New Style_, then prevalent in Germany. Sunday, 10 Aug. 1749, O.S.,
was on Thursday, 31 July, 1749, N.S. The York coach-bill cited on the
same page is in O.S.

Is not "_Stäts_-Kutsche," in the same communication, a misprint?

A.J.E.

G.G. has perhaps a little overrated the import of the passage he quotes
from Schultz's travels. "_Dass wir kaum 6 Stunden gefahren sind_"--even
supposing there is no misprint of a 6 for an 8 or 9, which is quite
possible--will not, I apprehend, bear the meaning he collects from the
words, viz. that _the journey occupied no more than six hours_, or less
even than so much.

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