26 ANNALS OF THE ROAD. 



simultaneously. Again, he proposed that, instead of 

 leaving London at all hours of the night, all the coaches 

 for the different roads should start from the General 

 Post Office at the same time. Thus was established a 

 practice which long afforded to the stranger in London 

 one of the first of City sights. 



Mr. Palmer's mail coaches were not put on the road 

 without great opposition and many objections on the 

 part of the gentlemen of the Post Orifice. Notwithstand- 

 ing his stipulation that mail guards should accompany 

 them well armed, ' Still,' said the opposition, ' there are 

 no means of effectually preventing robbery, as the strong- 

 est cart or coach that could be made, lined and bound 

 with iron, might easily be broken into by determined 

 robbers.' 



The first mail coach on Palmer's system began 

 running on August 8, ] 784. The following order autho- 

 rising this trial of the mail coach plan was issued on 

 July 24 of that year : 'His Majesty's Postmasters- 

 General, being inclined to make an experiment for the 

 more expeditious conveyance of mails of letters by stage 

 coaches, machines, &c, have been pleased to order that 

 a trial shall be made upon the road between London 

 and Bristol, to commence at each place on Monday the 

 2nd August next.' It did not, however, begin until the 

 8th. One coach left London at eight in the morning, 

 reaching Bristol about eleven the same night. The 

 distance between London and Bath was accomplished in 

 fourteen hours. The other coach was started from 

 Bristol at four in the afternoon on the same day. reach- 



