Travelling Manners - The More Things Change ... Joan Lennon

On 30 January 1836, The Times published "The Omnibus Law" - obviously the paper felt there was a need for guidelines ...

The Law included:

* Keep your feet off the seats.

* Sit with your limbs straight, and do not with your legs describe an angle of 45, thereby occupying the room of two persons.

*  Do not spit on the straw.  You are not in a hogsty but in an omnibus travelling in a country which boasts of its refinement.

*  Behave respectfully to females and put not an unprotected lass to the blush, because she cannot escape from your brutality.

*  If you bring a dog, let him be small and be confined by a string.

*  Do not introduce large parcels - an omnibus is not a van.

*  If you will broach politics or religion, speak with moderation: all have an equal right to their opinions, and all have an equal right to not have them wantonly shocked.

*  Refrain from affectation and conceited airs.  Remember that you are riding a distance for sixpence which, if made in a hackney coach, would cost you as many shillings; and that should your pride elevate you above plebeian accommodations, your purse should enable you to common aristocratic indulgences.

And my personal favourite:

*  Reserve bickerings and disputes for the open field.  The sound of your own voice may be music to your own ears - not so, perhaps, to those of your companions.

Plus ca change, as they say.