156 STAGE-COACH AND MAIL IN DAYS OF YORE 



mile. At a time, he continued, when stage- 

 coaches cost their proprietors about twopence a 

 mile, it was quite certain that adventurers 

 could be found to establish mail-coaches if the 

 Government would consent to pay them at the 

 same rate as the postboys, to exempt them from 

 the heavy tolls to which ordinary traffic Avas 

 liable, and to permit passengers to be carried to 

 enable these speculative persons to earn a profit 

 on their enterprise. The projDosed exemjjtion from 

 toll was very reasonable when we consider how 

 onerous were the turnpike charges on the Bath 

 E-oad, typical as it was of others. The charges for a 

 carriage and four horses between London and Bath 

 Avere not less than ISs., or about twopence a mile. 



These mail-coaches, he considered, should travel 

 at about eight or nine miles an hour. They should 

 carry no outside passengers, but were to be j^i'o- 

 vided Avitli a guard, avIio, for the better protection 

 of the mails, should be armed with tAvo short guns 

 or blunderbusses. The coachman, too, should be 

 armed, but his equipment Avas to be tA\"o pistols, 

 for with his reins to hold Avitli one hand he could 

 not, like the guard, bring his Aveapon to the 

 shoulder. The journey, for example, betAveen 

 London and Bath, it Avas thought, could be per- 

 formed in sixteen hovirs, including stoppages ; and 

 this unusual expedition, together Avitli the assured 

 safety, would result in the projected coaches being 

 well patronised by the public. 



This plan was matured in 1782, and Palmer 

 lost no time in securing the good offices of an 



