34 ANNALS OF THE ROAD. 



chanofinor a single bag", and the end of it was that he crot the 

 sack ! This was not all though ; for usinQ - his interest, 

 he was actually appointed, very shortly afterwards an 



inspector of mail guards. Thus this out-and-out J n 



B— — 1, who was not thought fit to be a mail guard, was 

 made to look after other mail guards.' 



The leather mail bags, since changed for canvas bags, 

 date from 1603. They were 'well lined with baize or 

 cotton so as not to injure the letters.' 



It may not be generally known that the Queen is the 

 only person who can have a mail bag opened after it has 

 once been closed, the mails being as they are styled, 

 ' Her Majesty's mails.' 



So long as the mails were carried by post-boys, it 

 rested with the different post-masters to furnish these 

 post-boys or couriers with ' horns to sound and blow, as 

 oft as the post meets company, or at least four times in 

 every mile.' Thus arose a custom which, under modified 

 arrangements, was strictly observed on mail coaches. 

 The order to the guards of mails was that they were to 

 blow their horns 250 yards before they came to a gate; 

 and the penalty for infringement of this order was 40-5". 

 The coach-horn, ' the three feet of tin,' was placed in a 

 loop on the offside of the coach. 



In 1836 there were fifty four-horse mails in England, 

 thirty in Ireland, and ten in Scotland. In England there 

 were besides forty-nine two-horse mails. In the last year 

 of mail coaches, the number which left London every 

 night punctually at eight o'clock was twenty-seven ; and 



