CHAPTER XIV. 



Posting on the Great North Road — Bob Newman of Regent Street 

 — Old " Boys " — Loyal Tom King of Amersham ; he drives 

 King George III. — An Elopement and the Sequel — May-Day 

 Procession of the Mails — The Railway Fiend — The Wisdom of 

 Weller — Old London Inns — An English Bill of Fare and the 

 Menu a la Russe—i:\i^ Old Norfolk Circuit— The Bar Mess : 

 Fitzroy Kelly v. Serjeant Storks — One Pint many Times — 

 Puritan Ipswich — A Peccant Engine. 



In my early childhood and boyhood the old modes of 

 travelling by post-horses and stage-coaches had been 

 brought to great perfection, and the pace at which the 

 public then travelled seemed incredible to a former 

 generation — in fact, the arrangements for the different 

 lines of posting on the main arteries out of London 

 almost deserved the name of a fine art. The practice of 

 what was called "running in money" was the system of 

 paying post-boys a certain sum of money as a premium 

 for bringing a carriage with either a pair or four horses 

 to the first change. For instance, we will take Barnet as 

 our starting-point, which was the first station on the 

 great North Road. This small town, like nearly all 

 those on the whole route, had two rival posting-establish- 

 ments, and each establishment had its own line of 

 posting-houses the whole way to York, Chester, or 



