128 STAGE-COACH AND MAIL IN DAYS OF YORE 



supervising and organising, as they no longer found 

 it possible to do. 



Baxendale found plenty of work of this nature 

 awaiting him. The staff of horses which the 

 Pickfords had found sufficient for their needs in 

 bygone years had been little, if at all, increased, 

 although a period of great trade-expansion had 

 set in ; and a total lack of efficient supervision 

 over agents and carmen had resulted in the carry- 

 ing business being dilatory and untrustworthy. 

 Under these circumstances, it is not surprising 

 that rival firms had begun to threaten the very 

 existence of Pickford's, declining under the 

 nerveless rule, liy which the needs of the time 

 were not understood. 



It was soon impressed upon the new partner's 

 active and penetrating intelligence that the re- 

 quirements of the time, and still more the require- 

 ments of the succeeding years, imperatively 

 demanded a thorough reorganisation — more 

 thorough, perhaps, than the old partners were 

 altogether ready to concede. He soon acquired 

 entire control, and the Pickfords, unable or 

 unwilling to meet new times Avith new methods, 

 left their already historic business and its destinies 

 in his hands. 



He speedily altered the aspect of affairs. Soon 

 he had close upon a thousand horses, all his own, 

 on the great roads between London and the north- 

 west ; while advertisements were issued, announc- 

 ing " Caravans on Springs and Guarded, carrying 

 Goods only, every afternoon at 6 o'clock," from 



