22 stAgil-coAch And mail in days of yor^ 



have upset, and speedily become empty. Mean- 

 while the coaches have moved off, to complete 

 their tour to the General Post Office, and thence 

 hack to Millbank. 



These processions, from some cause or another 

 not now easily to he discovered, were omitted in 

 1829 and 1830. May 17th, 1838, when twenty- 

 five mails paraded, was the last occasion ; for 

 already the railwa,y Avas threatening the road, 

 and when Queen Victoria's birthday recurred 

 the ranks of the mails were sadly broken. 



This memorable year, 1837, then, was the 

 last unbroken year of the mail-coaches starting 

 from London. Since September 23rd, 1829, when 

 the old General Post Office in Lombard Street was 

 deserted for the great building in St. Martin's-le- 

 Grand, they had come and gone. The first ever 

 to enter its gates, as the result of keen com- 

 petition, had been the up Holyhead Mail of that 

 date ; the last was the Dover Mail, in 1844. 



The mail-coaches loaded up about half -past 

 seven at their respective inns, and then assembled 

 at the Post Office Yard to receive the bags. All, 

 that is to say, except seven West of England 

 mails — the Bath, Bristol, Devonport, Exeter, 

 Gloucester, Southampton and Stroud — whose 

 coaches started from Piccadilly, the bags being 

 conveyed to them at that point by mail-cart. 

 There were thus twenty-one coaches starting 

 nightly fi-om the General Post Office precisely at 

 8 o'clock. Here is a list of the mails setting out 

 every night throughout the year : — 



