DANGERS OF THE ROAD. 59 



In January 18 14, the mail coach from Edinburgh had 

 to be left behind, the bags being forwarded to Alnwick 

 on horse-back, and eight horses were required to draw 

 the 'Wellington' coach from York to Newcastle. 



The ostler at the ' Bull Inn,' Dartford, on the Dover 

 Road — which inn, by the way, is one of those old galleried 

 houses so picturesque and at the same time so comfort- 

 able and homely — told me that he had frequently seen 

 boys lifted frozen from off their saddles on getting into 

 the yard. During the severe winter of 1863, I saw the 

 Norwich and Cromer coach leave the inn at Norwich, 

 drawn by eight horses- — the late eccentric Mr. Wyndham 

 used often to drive this coach. The pack-horse and the 

 waggon, the stage coach and the mail, have all had to 

 succumb to the rage of winter. The patience, diligence, 

 and self-sacrifice of guards of mails were conspicuous in 

 the fearful snow-storms in 1836. A mail coach having 

 travelled in Scotland during a driving snow-storm as far 

 as it could advance, the guard, as was the custom in such 

 cases, took the bags with him on horse-back for nine 

 miles farther. And then the horse sinking deeper at 

 every step, was sent back to the coach, while the rider 

 (I should like to know his name), essaying to carry the 

 bags on foot, was found with them around his neck next 

 morning quite dead. During the winter months, a snow 

 shovel was always carried on the mail ; it was strapped, 

 handle downwards, at the back of the guard's seat. 



The fearful snowstorm of December 1836, which 

 lasted the best part of a week, has never been equalled 

 in England before or since. For ten days or more 



