CH. XX SPEED 469 



39 minutes, which again is better than Selby's time 

 of 108 miles in 7 hours and 50 minutes. 



Whitley, Coventry Coaching, p. 13, says that 

 Jack Eyeritt drove 'The Wonder' on May-day, 

 from Coventry to London, 150 miles, in 8 hours 

 and 35 minutes; this is at the rate of 17^ miles 

 an hour. 



Corbett, p. 129, says that the Coventry coaches 

 on other May-days, travelled 108 miles in less than 

 7 hours, or at the rate of 15.4 miles an hour. This 

 was about the year 1823. 



In all these cases the coaches were running on 

 their regular routes, with horses and men in thorough 

 training ; their superior speed does not in the least 

 diminish the credit due to the performance from 

 Paris to Trouville. 



Before the railroads to the Pacific were built, the 

 United States mails were sent through by ' pony 

 express,' and upon a number of occasions races 

 were run by the rival Express Companies. 



In 1854 Bill Lowden, a messenger in the em- 

 ployment of Adams & Co., carried the mail saddle- 

 bags, weighing fifty-four pounds, from Tahama, on 

 the Sacramento River in Northern California, to 

 Weaverville, one hundred miles, in 5 hours and 

 13 minutes; that is, at the rate of 19.12 miles an 

 hour. He had twenty-eight horses, stationed along 

 the road, about four miles apart. Each horse was 

 held by a mounted horse-keeper, who, when he 

 heard the approaching messenger's whistle, started 



