3o ANNALS OF THE ROAD. 



CHAPTER VII. 



REGULATIONS. 



Some notice of the details of the working of the new 

 system, of the position, duties and pay of the guards and 

 coachmen, of the furnishing of the coaches, rules of the 

 road, &c, will be interesting to my readers. To these 

 matters I address myself in this chapter. 



The guards of the mails received only \os. a week 

 from Government ; but their perquisites sometimes 

 mounted up to 3/. or 4/. a week when they were at work, 

 and 1 2s. 6d. when not at work. Bankers entrusted 

 thousands of pounds to their care ; and they often had the 

 charge of plate-chests, jewellery, &c. For these respon- 

 sibilities they were highly paid. They were armed with 

 a blunderbuss l and a pair of pistols, which were placed 

 in a kind of sword case fixed at the back of the coach in 



1 This was a short gun, having a brass barrel, bell-shaped towards the 

 muzzle. It did not carry very true, as will appear from the following story, 

 told me by Nevill, the old Carlisle mail guard, now employed in the General 

 Post Office : ' Going over Salisbury Plain one severe winter's day, the snow 

 lying deep, I saw some grouse near the road tamed by the weather. I took 

 my blunderbuss, got down, and had a shot at them. They were about forty 

 yards off; but though I pride myself on being a good shot generally, I could 

 not with my piece — loaded as it was with swan shot — get a true line, as the 

 shot hit the ground ioo yards off, flying all over the place.' 



