Regency Trivia – Hired Travel

Post Chaises (or Yellow Bounders)

For those who wished to travel some distance but didn’t want to lower themselves to taking a stage coach or the mail coach, there were post chaises, often called yellow bounders for their distinctive yellow color, for hire. They usually had only one bench and a window in the front. Sort of like a traveling chariot.

Post chaises were pulled by either a team or a pair and were designed for a postilion to ride the horses (one for a pair and two for a team) so there was no need for a coachman. They weren’t cheap. When hiring a yellow bounder one paid one shilling and six pence (roughly 2.50 British Pounds at a time when on could live in a large house with servants for 1000 British Pounds a year) a mile for a pair of horses, double that for four horses. Not only that, but the postilion only went so far before he and his horses returned to their home coaching inn. Therefore, once you reached the end of his route, you had to hire more horses.

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