POSTING DAYS. 219 



ran into London, at ;^I2 per annum each, it became 

 a very large sum for the Londoners to pocket, amount- 

 ing to some thousands a year. Each coach was charged 

 I2S. 6d. a week for washing and greasing the wheels ; 

 for every parcel or passenger had to be paid 2d. for 

 booking ; the coachmen paid their takings into the 

 London end, and thus the London proprietors had 

 thousands always at their bankers. The accounts were 

 made up monthly, and divided at so much per mile 

 for their earnings, and each man who horsed the coach 

 had his mileage sent him, whilst if any loss of parcels or 

 otherwise had happened on his section of the road, he 

 was the person made responsible. At every stage the 

 coachman took what was called his waybill into the 

 office and entered the number of passengers taken up 

 and carried, their fares were placed in the proper 

 column, and the money was given up at the journey's 

 end. The proprietors were thus entirely at the mercy 

 of the coachmen and guards, as there was no check 

 upon the miles the passengers were recorded as having 

 travelled. It was always considered that the government, 

 in duty and taxes, owned one wheel of the coach, and 

 the coachman and guard purloined another wheel, the 

 turnpikes, farriers, harness-makers, and coach-painters 

 had another, which left one wheel only to the proprietors 

 as their share of the profit. Only when the coachman 

 and guard began to " shoulder," as it was called, and took 

 an unexampled pull at the takings, did proprietors wax 

 wroth, and a general dismissal all round took place. It 

 was amusing to watch the way in which the old coachmen 

 of the mails and long stages looked down on the drivers 



