254 STAGE-COACH AND MAIL IN DAYS OF YORE 



A full coacli produced 16s. in tips ; or, if the 

 trip did not boast so good a waybill, guard and 

 coachman by prescriptive right divided all short 

 fares below os. A " good mail " — that is to say, a 

 mail on one of the great direct roads — loading well, 

 Avould produce sometimes as much as from £300 to 

 £500 a year in tijis and fees for services rendered to 

 passengers and others. A guai'd's income depended 

 mainly upon his attention and civility to passengers, 

 but there were many other sources. Before 1831 

 the sale of game was absolutely prohibited, yet a 

 great trade was done in it, with the mail and stage- 

 guards as intermediaries, and there can be no doubt 

 that the coaches afforded every ojiportunity that 

 poachers could desire of marketing the birds and 

 ground-game that fell to their guns or nets in the 

 darkling midnight woods. 



Country squires knew this very well, and 

 threatened and fumed without ceasing, Ijut they 

 or their keepers never by any chance saw those 

 roadside scenes familiar enough to passengers on 

 the up-mails ; when, passing at midnight by some 

 dense woodland bordering the road, a low whistle 

 would be heard, and the coach would pull uj^ Avhile 

 a couple of men handed a sack over to the guard, 

 who, thrusting it into the hind-boot and stam])ing 

 the lid down, called out " Good-night ! " and the 

 journey was resumed without comment. The 

 curious or suspicious might connect such an 

 incident with another which often haj)i)ened on 

 entering London. "Jack," the guard would sing 

 out, " Mr. Smith wants his luggage left at so- 



