126 STAGE-COACH AND MAIL IN DAYS OF YORE 



" N.B. — M. Pickford will not be accountable 

 for any Money, Plate, Watches, Jewels, Writings, 

 Glass, China, etc., unless entered as such, and paid 

 for accordingly. 



" Constant attention at the above Inns in 

 London and Manchester, to take in Goods, etc." 



It will be noticed that these " four days and 

 a half" ti'ijis, although performed by "Plying 

 Waggons," and presumably much swifter than 

 some earlier ones of which we have no record, 

 were only four and a half days in a very special 

 sense, and by the exercise of some peculiar method 

 of reckoning whose secret has not descended to 

 us. It might seem, to the person of ordinary 

 intelligence, that these were really itineraries 

 of rather more than five days and a half; 

 but the Sunday was doubtless a day of rest 

 for the waggoners, as for most others in those 

 times. 



In 1780, according to the evidence afforded 

 by an old billhead, still preserved, Matthew Pick- 

 ford was carrying on business in conjunction Avith 

 Thomas, his brother, and in this partnership they 

 continued to trade for many years. 



Meanwhile, the manufacturing industries of 

 Lancashire and the north-Avest had grown enor- 

 mously, and canals were already being dug to 

 aid the transport of goods. We have no means 

 of knoAving in how far the Pickfords took 

 advantage of the early canals in the Midlands, 

 but that they availed themselves very greatly of 



