XPost: rec.arts.sf.written, rec.arts.sf.science   
   From: gossg@gossg.org   
      
   David DeLaney  wrote:   
      
   >Right - this is why 40 miles out of London used to be an all-day affair to   
   >get to (also taking into consideration that you were packing up a few servants   
   >and a driver and some trunks of clothing because you weren't going to turn   
   >right back around and come HOME the next day, gracious no...). And, in a way,   
   >why the urbs that have grown up in the USA feel so large and far apart to   
   >denizens of the UK and Europe, where the towns and cities and hamlets were   
   >generally built at horse-type distances apart...   
   >   
   >(Ours originally were too, of course - and you can see the difference on maps   
   >as you scroll from the East Coast over to the Rocky Mountains and the West   
   >Coast.)   
      
   When we moved to Toronto briefly in the early twokays, we bought an   
   apartment near the end of the subway line, so once I got a job   
   probably downtown, it would be an easy commute.   
      
   When reading on the damage from Hurricane Hazel in the fifties, some   
   of the photos were of the ferry dock where weekenders from Toronto   
   would arrive in the boat to the cabins in Etobicoke.  It was between   
   me and downtown.  A friend dragged me around to famous haunted places.   
   One of them was a former hotel about a day's journey from Toronto,   
   where people would stop overnight before catching the river crossing   
   in the morning.  It was about halfway between my apartment and   
   downtown.   
      
   Modern North Americans just cannot fathom the scale of a horse-based   
   society.   
   --   
   We are geeks.  Resistance is voltage over current.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)