54 Saddle and Sirloin. 



with rain and dew and hoar-frost as your dreary por- 

 tion you can leave Euston-square at a quarter to 

 nine, and see the summer sun " shine fair on Carlisle 

 wall" before six o'clock. 



Mr. Teather was the principal mail contractor ; but 

 he gave up working the south side of Carlisle in 1837, 

 and his son (who very often tooled his own teams), 

 took it, as well as the Carlisle and Longtown stage. 

 When the rail was completed to Carlisle, the latter 

 entered into the northern contract with Mr. Croall, 

 and when the Caledonian Railway reached Beattock 

 Bridge, the plant was removed there, and the horses 

 had for a time to be stabled under canvas. Some five 

 years before steam became lord of all, there was a 

 curious dispute about the Government contract, and 

 Mr. Barton, who had been in partnership with Mr. 

 Teather, senior, claimed the ground from Hesketh to 

 Penrith, and sent his horses and helpers to Hesketh. 

 It was a regular fight between the men, day by day, 

 which set of horses should be put in first. Parson 

 Bird favoured the Bartonians, whose chief had never 

 really signed the Government contract, and Mr. Parkin 

 invariably rode down from Greenways, and sat watch- 

 ing the faction fight from his saddle. It went on for 

 several days, and then the Bartonians gave in. 



The mails were chocolate-bodied, picked out with 

 scarlet, and wheels, perch, waist, bars, and pole all 

 scarlet. The harness was perfectly plain, with the 

 exception of the initials and coach-bars on the 

 blinkers. Hucks Brow was a severe pull of a mile, 

 and the seven miles going south from Shap to the 

 Brow were also all on the collar. Accidents were 

 wonderfully few, and the principal one befel a country 

 mail, whose horses shied at a water-wheel just as they 

 crossed Kirbythore Bridge. The drop was eight feet, 

 and one horse was killed ; but there the damage 

 ended. A stalwart Yorkshire woolstapler performed 

 a somersault quite equal to the Keswick sow-leader, 



