32 STAGE-COACH AND MAIL IN DAYS OF YORE 



1 hour 38 minutes to Exeter and 4 hours 

 39 minutes to Falmouth. This then hecame the 

 fastest long-distance mail in the kingdom, main- 

 taining a speed, including stops, of nearly lOJ 

 miles an hour hetween London and Devonport. 

 It should he remembered, when considering the 

 subject of speed, that the mails had not only to 

 change horses and stay for supper and breakfast, 

 like the stage-coaches, but also had to call at 

 the post offices to deliver and collect the mail- 

 bags, and all time so expended had to be made 

 up. The " Quicksilver " must needs have gone 

 some stages at 12 miles an hour. 



Time also had to be kept in all kinds of 

 weather, and the guard — who Avas the servant 

 of the Post Office, and not, as the coachman was, 

 of the mail-contractors — Avas bound to see that 

 time was kept, and had poAver, Avhenever it was 

 being lost, to order out post-horses at the expense 

 of the contractors. Six, and sometimes eight, 

 horses were often thus attached to the mails. 

 The route of the " Quicksilver " from 1837 was 

 according to the following time-lull : — ■ 



Leaving General Post Office at 8 p.m. 



The complete official time-bill for the Avhole 

 distance is appended : — 



