24 STAGE-COACH AND MAIL IN DA YS OF YORE 



With the exception of the Brighton, Ports- 

 month, Dover and Hastings, they were all 

 s2)lendidly-apl^ointecl four-horse coaches ; hut those 

 four places being only at short distances, speed 

 was unnecessary, and they were only provided 

 with pair-horse mails. Had a sj^eed similar 

 to that maintained on most other mails heen 

 kept u]:), letters and passengers would have 

 reached the coast in the middle of tlie night. 



The so-called " Yarmouth Mail " was, we are 

 told by those who travelled on it, an ordinary 

 stage-coach, carrying the usual four inside and 

 twelve outside, chartered by the Post Office to 

 carry the mail-bags ; but the old j^rint, engraved 

 here, does not bear out that contention. 



The arrkal of the mails in London was an early 

 morning affair. Pirst of all came the Leeds, at 

 five minutes past four, folloAved at an interval of 

 over an hour — 5.15 — by the Glasgow, and then, at 

 5.39, by the Edinburgh. All arrived by 7 o'clock. 



There Avas then, as now, no Sunday delivery 

 of letters in London, and Saturdav nis^hts were, 

 by consequence, saturnalias for the up-mails. 

 Although tin; clock might have been set with 

 accuracy by their passing at any other time, their 

 coming into London on Sundays Avas a hap])y- 

 go-lucky, chance affair. The coaclnnen would 

 arrange to meet on the Saturday nights at such 

 junctions of the different routes as .Viidover, 

 lloLinslow, Puckeridge, and Hockliife, and so 

 in company have what they very descriptively 

 termed a " roaring time." 



