482 ENGLISH COACHING CH. XX 



expression in coaching songs, of 'eleven and four,' 

 meaning a full load : — 



' As he rattles along with eleven and four 

 'And a petticoat on the box.' 



Both the mails and the coaches were the property 

 of coach-builders, who hired them out to the pro- 

 prietors of the road or to the mail-contractors, at 

 so much a mile run per month. 



On a long route there were usually several 

 proprietors, who together furnished the horses, 

 employed the coachmen, and managed the busi- 

 ness generally, dividing the profits according to a 

 monthly settlement. 



Some of the large proprietors had as many as 

 twelve hundred horses, and horsed a number of 

 lines of coaches and mails. Harris, in The Coach- 

 ing Age and in Old Coaching Days, gives a detailed 

 account of all this business. 



The Encyclopedia Londoncnsis, 1826, p. 308, says 

 that (at that date) ' there are about 1 yo coaches and 

 ' 4500 horses, employed in England for the mails ; 

 'all private property.' 



The average fares were : outside, 2^ to 3 pence 

 a mile, inside, double that ; the mails were some- 

 what dearer. 



The ' road game' is frequently referred to in old 

 books, and it is not a bad aid to merriment in any 

 coaching trip. Each person, or party of persons, 

 chooses one side or the other of the road, and cer- 



