The Mer?y Past 



acceptances. The road was open as far as Corwen, in 

 Merionethshire, but the passes through the Carnarvon- 

 shire mountains were blocked up. By extraordinary 

 exertions, undertaken chiefly at his own suggestion, 

 this man got the coach, filled with bags, to Holyhead, 

 for w^hich he received the thanks of the Post Office, 

 accompanied by a reward. Several other guards more 

 than once ran great risk of their lives in getting 

 through flooded roads ; brave men in two instances 

 sacrificed their lives to their duty. 



Guards on mails, being servants of the Crown, did 

 carry firearms, the idea being ,to protect the letter 

 bags. 



Female guards were not altogether unknown. 



In 1 815 a newly started stage-coach from Sunder- 

 land to Shields attracted crowds of people at both 

 towns, in consequence of the unusual appearance of a 

 corpulent, masculine-looking woman, apparently about 

 sixty years of age, who officiated as guard. Her 

 alertness in looking out for passengers, and the agility 

 with which she ascended and descended from the top 

 of the vehicle, were wonderful. Besides all this, the 

 lady professed to be an expert pugilist. 



Much connected with the coaching of other days 

 is now enshrined in a kind of romantic mist, and 

 the traditional stage-coachman is always supposed to 

 have been a pattern of bluff geniality, whose most 

 serious failing was a love of good cheer; as a matter 

 of fact too many of these men were anything but 

 estimable characters. No class of person was so little 

 scrutinised on his initiation into office as the driver 



135 



