40 THE COACHING ERA 



through; but seated on the Royal Mail, I felt warm and 

 comfortable, the air did me good, I was pleased with the 

 progress we made, and confident that all would go well 

 through the journey." 



The departure of the mails became one of the sights 

 of London, and crowds of people assembled near the 

 General Post Office in Lombard Street every evening 

 at 8 o'clock when the mail-coaches drove up in double 

 file to receive their mail-bags. 



This assemblage of mails was a sight to remember: 

 the handsome crimson coaches with the Royal Arms, the 

 sleek, well-groomed horses with their polished harness, 

 the spruce coachman, and the scarlet-coated guard, 

 who, when the coach had received its mails, blew a 

 cheering blast on his horn as a prelude to the journey. 



The perfedion of coaches brought into existence two 

 things which had not entered into Palmer's calculations. 

 One was that with good roads and good horses the 

 sporting spirit was not to be controlled and, when rival 

 coaches were put on the road, race they would if they 

 broke every bone in their passengers' bodies, to say noth- 

 ing of the stringent rules ena6led against the pradlice 

 by those in authority; the second, that gentlemen sud- 

 denly discovered that there was most exquisite pleasure 

 to be obtained from driving four horses and, when 

 coaches were horsed at the proportion of one a mile, 

 nowhere could this pleasure be enjoyed so thoroughly as 

 on the public coaches. 



Proprietors fumed, passengers protested shrilly and 

 indignantly, but to little purpose, for the would-be 



