40 STAGE-COACH AND MAIL IN DAYS OF YORE 



storied road, in the dc|:)arture of the coach from 

 Newcastle-on-Tyne for Edinburgh. The next day 

 the North British Railway was opened. 



The local Derhy and Manchester Mail Avas 

 one of the last to go. It Aveiit off in October 

 1858. But away up in the far north of Scotland, 

 where Nature at her wildest, and civilisation and 

 jiopulation at their sparsest, placed physical and 

 financial obstacles before the railway engineers, 

 it Avas not until August 1st, 1871^, that the mail- 

 coach era closed, in the last journey of the mail- 

 coach between Wick and Thurso. That same day 

 the Highland Baihvay was opened, and in the 

 whole length and breadth of England and Scot- 

 land mail-coaches had ceased to exist. 



The mail-coaches in their prime were noljle 

 vehicles. Disdaining an 3^ display of gilt lettering 

 or varied colour commonly to be seen on the com- 

 petitive stage-coaches, they Avere yet remarkably 

 striking. The lower part of the body has been 

 variously described as chocolate, maroon, and 

 scarlet. Maroon certainly was the colour of the 

 later mails, and " chocolate " is obviously an error 

 on the part of some Avriter Avhose colour-sense was 

 not particularly exact ; but Ave can only reconcile 

 the ^' scarlet " and " maroon " by sujiposing tliat 

 the earlier colouring Avas in fact the more A'ivid 

 of the tAVo. The fore and liiiul Ijoots Avere black, 

 together Avith the up})er quarters of the body, 

 aiid Avere saved from being too sombre by the 

 Koyal cipher in gold on the fore boot, the number 

 of the mail on the hind, and, emblazoned on the 



