COACHING DAYS AND WAYS 



* The Stirling mail has been robbed of notes to 

 the value of £13,000 in the following manner : — 

 A man took his seat at Stirling as an outside 

 passenger. The mail was followed closely from 

 Stirling by a gig containing two men. When the 

 mail arrived at Kirkliston the guard stopped to 

 take out the customary bags to leave there. The 

 gig also stopped there, and the two men in it went 

 into the house. The guard had left the mail box 

 open, in which the parcels were, and the outside 

 passenger easily abstracted the one containing the 

 notes. He then left the coach. The gig with the 

 two men took the Queensferry Road. The parcels 

 were not missed until the mail reached Edinburgh. 

 On the Queensferry Road the two men were joined 

 by their accomplice, the outside passenger. They 

 left the gig and took a post chaise for Edinburgh. 

 They discharged the chaise before entering the 

 city and gave the post-boy £3.' (^Bell's Life, 2nd 

 January 1825). 



Great improvements in all matters connected with 

 coaching were made during the first two decades 

 of the nineteenth century : these were due to the 

 rage for driving that prevailed about this time. 



44 



