66 The Dumfries Post Office, 1642-1910. 



twenty minutes past six. Here a halt was made to await the 

 arrival of the Carlisle coach with the North of Ireland mails. 

 Thence it proceeded to Portpatrick, leaving Dumfries at 9.15 

 a.m. every morning, and journeying by way of Castle-Douglas, 

 Gatehouse, Newton-Stewart, Glenluce, and Stranraer. 2'^ The 

 return journey was performed by a second coach, leaving Port 

 Patrick at six o'clock in the evening, reached the King's Arms, 

 Dumfries, at 26 minutes past five in the morning, and departed 

 thence for Edinburgh at 26 minutes past six, calling at the Spur 

 Inn, Moffat, .shortly after 9 a.m., and proceeding by way of 

 Noblehouse. The two coaches met at Gatehou.se-of-Fleet, in the 

 parish of Girthon. 



The foregoing hours of departure and arrival were, of course, 

 subject to periodical alteration. The purpose of mentioning them 

 is to show the time occupied on the various stages of the journey. 



It was at one time contemplated to run the Edinburgh to 

 Dumfries mail-coach via Lochmaben, but the road trustees 

 objected on account of the expense of building a bridge across 

 the AL and of making a few miles of new road. A proposal to 

 discontinue the coach on the 6th June, 1828, was strenuously 

 opposed by the inhabitants of the district, and the coach con- 

 tinued to run for many years after. The incident has been cele- 

 brated in verse by Will Caesar in an addendum to his " Jaunt to 

 Edinburgh." A further attempt to discontinue this coach appears 

 to have been made in the beginning of the year 1847, but the 

 Town Council of Dumfries petitioned against its withdrawal, and 

 they appear to have been successful. 



So much for the mail-coaches. What of the men who had 

 charge of them? 



We are told that, on the whole, the guards and mail-coach 

 drivers were extremely conscientious in the discharge of their duty. 

 Those in charge of the various mail-coaches passing to and from 

 Dumfries seem to have maintained the high reputation of their 

 class. Exposed to the inclemency of the weather, and always, 

 perhaps, setting out with a lurking fear of accident or robbery, 



24. On the opening of the new road in 1800 the coach was trans- 

 ferred to it and travelled backward and forward daily through that 

 part, taking the villages of Crocketford and Springholm by the way. 

 —Frew's " The Parish of Urr," p. 61. 



