CHAPTER XII 



STAGE-COACH GUARDS 



XoT every stage-coacli carried a guard, and 

 largely to that omission was due the prevalence 

 of accidents in the last years of coaching. When 

 we find guards first mentioned in old stage- 

 coach advertisements, shortly after the middle 

 of the eighteenth century, they were provided 

 strictly for the purpose their name indicates— 

 to guard the coaches against attack; and when 

 such dangers grew more remote they were 

 generally discontinued on day- coaches. Thus 

 very often, except on long-distance stages, even 

 the smart day-coaches carried no guard, and 

 when they did, his functions were not so much 

 to safeguard the coach in the original sense as 

 to help the coachman by skidding and unskidding 

 down hill, and to look after the way-bill and 

 the passengers' luggage. It Avas when no such 

 useful functionary was carried, and Avhen tJie 

 coachman, combining the parts, descended from 

 his box, and leaving the reins in charge of a 

 passenger, or often merely resting them on the 

 horses' backs, went to explore the contents of 

 the boots, or alighted for some other necessary 

 business, that the horses often started off on 



