POSTING IN FRANCE. 327 



a 'tip,' they make no bones about it, but call it plainly a 

 pourboire. In Italy buona mano expresses the same ' tip,' and 

 in Germany Trinkgeld. 



TRAVELLING BY < MALLE-POSTE ' IN FRANCE. 



When the railways knocked this ' service ' on the head, it 

 had reached the highest state of perfection to which man and 

 horseflesh could be brought. Loading much lighter than our 

 mail-coaches, the malle-postes fully equalled the pace at which 

 ours travelled. They were inconveniently fast to the traveller, 

 for as their changes of horses were effected in forty-five seconds, 

 he had no time to get out to stretch his legs, excepting at long 

 intervals when at a post-office bags had to be taken in or 

 out. 



There were two sorts of malle-poste. The lighter one car- 

 ried but two passengers. It was built like a britzka, with a 

 very long front boot and a commodious dickey behind, with a 

 movable head to it in which travelled the conducteu^Anglice, 

 mail-guard. The body in which the passengers sat had a hard 

 fixed half-head and a sort of cabriolet head attached to it which 

 could be let down low and in which there were curtains, a 

 hard apron coming high up. It was most comfortable plenty 

 of room for one's legs, and far preferable to the other sort 

 of malle-poste. Only one portmanteau was allowed to each 

 passenger, with any small handbag or parcel ; the rest of his 

 baggage had to be sent by diligence. This sort of carriage was 

 always driven ' ride and drive,' and generally by two postilions, 

 though occasionally by one, always with four horses. The 

 other sort resembled an English mail-coach without any seats 

 for outside passengers. It carried four inside, and the con- 

 ducteur was usually on the cabriolet in front or on a dickey 

 behind with head to it. The mails went in the fore and hind 

 boots, and the carriage was often driven from a little seat, we 

 can hardly dignify by the name of a box-seat, in front four-in- 

 hand. The pace, including stoppages, was quite up to the 

 Devonport Quicksilver Mail, the Exeter Telegraph, or the 



