26o STAGE-COACH AND MAIL IN DAYS OF YORE 



The tale has often been told how the mail-coaches, 

 carrying down with them the news of Trafalgar, of 

 Vittoria, and — culminating victory — of Waterloo, 

 went down into the country wreatlied with laurel 

 and flying juhilant flags, and Iioav the guards, 

 hoarse at last and inaudible from continual shout- 

 ing, resorted to the expedient of chalking the 

 words " Glorious Victory " in large letters on the 

 dickey, for the villagers to read as they dashed 

 along the roads. Often, under these circumstances, 

 a mail-guard was journalist as well, for when 

 he could string sentences together with a fair 

 approach to grammar, liis contriljutions to the 

 provincial press were welcomed and well paid 

 for. 



The duty of a mail-guard, besides the primary 

 one of protecting the mails, for which he Avas 

 provided with a blunderbuss, a pair of pistols, and 

 a cutlass carried in a case, was to see that time 

 was kept according to the official time-bill handed 

 to him. Por the purpose of checking sj^eed on the 

 road, and of keeping to that time-table, the Post 

 Office furnished every one of its guards with an 

 official time-piece enclosed in a wooden box in such 

 a way that it was impossible for any one to tamper 

 with it, or to alter the hands, without being 

 discovered. These clocks were regulated to gain 

 or lose so many minutes in twenty-four hours, 

 according to the direction in which the coach 

 travelled, in order that local time might be kept. 

 The timepiece was invariably carried in the leather 

 pouch with a circular hole cut in it that all mail- 



