242 ANNALS OF THE ROAD. 



happened. Of course, the coach is turned out sound and 

 right from the London yard, and there is very little 

 chance of her not returning to it in the same state — par- 

 ticularly as the roads now are. The mails, however, 

 more completely answer this objection than anything I 

 can advance. They have always used the patent box — 

 a patent of their own — and how very few instances are 

 there of their being stopped from the failure of them ! I 

 never heard of any. 



Proprietors will tell us the double linch-pin is quite 

 safe ; but this I deny. To gentlemen's carriages, which 

 have not the patent box, there is what is called the 

 screw-nut — which, turning in a contrary direction to the 

 wheel, will, in case of the linch-pin being lost, not only 

 prevent the wheel coming off, but, by its own operation, 

 will confine it so fast as scarcely to be able to turn round. 

 Stage-coaches have not even this precaution ; they 

 depend solely upon two linch-pins, fastened on by the 

 same strap, which linch-pins may both break or be lost, 

 and which strap may also fail. Certain, however, is it, 

 that innumerable accidents have happened to coaches 

 from wheels coming off, and, in these improving and fast 

 times, such chances should not be allowed to exist. 1 



When I first travelled with my favourite South- 

 ampton 'Telegraph,' her wheels were only secured by 

 the double linch-pin, and the consequence was, her often 

 leaving one of them behind her. She then had recourse 

 to another expedient, one most essential to so fast a 



1 All stage-coaches should have mail axles, and the utility and appear- 

 ance of these axles equally suit them for mail phaetons, breaks, &c. — Ed. 



