[STAGE sb. 9.] A coach that runs daily or on specified days between two places for the conveyance of passengers, parcels, etc.
1658. Mercurius Politicus, 1 April, 433. From the 26 day of April 1658, there will continue to go Stage Coaches from the George Inn.
1666. Pepys, Diary, 26 Feb. Kate Joyce, in a stage-coach going towards London, called to me.
1781. Cowper, Retirement, 492. And, if a shower approach, You find safe shelter in the next stage-coach.
1812. Examiner, 28 Dec., 827/2. A stage-coach … usually carries six inside passengers, and is drawn by four horses.
1881. Besant & Rice, Chapl. of Fl. (1883), I. iii. 17. We came to the roadside inn where the stage-coach changed horses.
b. U.S. ? The name of a game in which the players scramble for new places.
1892. Nation (N. Y.), 24 Nov., 397/3. What happened on the demise of the Grand Prince resembled a game of ‘stage-coach,’ with swords thrown in.
c. attrib.
1791. O’Keeffe, Wild Oats, II. iii. They’ve got your name down to the *stage-coach book.
1803. Censor, 1 March, 27. A *stage-coach conveyance.
1840. Dickens, Old C. Shop, xlvi. They allowed me … outside *stage-coach hire all the way.
1838. Penny Cycl., XII. 309/1. The horse of quick work, the *stage-coach horse and the poster.
1749. Smollett, Gil Blas, II. iii. ¶ 2. The clerk of a *stage-coach office registers those who take places.
Hence Stage-coaching vbl. sb., the running or driving of stage-coaches (also attrib.); travelling by stage-coach. Stage-coachman, the driver (also † the proprietor) of a stage-coach.
1756–7. trans. Keysler’s Trav. (1760), I. 349. The vetturini, or stage-coachman, must … not go out of the country without a pass.
1757. Ld. Mansfield, in Burrow, Settlem. Cases (1768), II. 424. This … is no more than the Case of the Oxford Stage-Coachman’s Servant who gained a Settlement in Chipping-Wicomb.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., lv. They … wore as many clothes as possible, which is … a stage-coachman’s idea of full dress. Ibid. (1844), Mart. Chuz., xiii. A large stage-coaching establishment.
1856. Olmsted, Slave States, ix. 547. Partly by rail and partly by rapid stage-coaching … I crossed the State.
1884. Sala, Journ. South (1887), I. viii. 108. The virtual state of perfection to which English stage-coaching had attained.
