I30 STAGE-COACH AND MAIL IN DAYS OF YORE 



"Castle," Wood Street, and the "White Bear," 

 Basinghall Street. To the first house, then a 

 a galleried inn of the ancient type, at the corner 

 of Wood Street and what is now Gresham Street, 

 hut was then Lad Lane, the London and Man- 

 chester waggons and caravans resorted ; and to 

 and from the " White Bear " went the Leicester 

 and Nottingham traffic. 



Coming with a fresh mind to tlie carrying 

 jirohlems that confronted the firm, the new jiartner 

 decided that London, and not Manchester, ought 

 to he its central point, and so soon as he ohtained 

 control he accordingly removed the head offices 

 to the Metropolis. Canal-traffic, too, engaged 

 his earnest attention, and the scope of the firm's 

 activities were extended enormously in that direc- 

 tion. The Begent's Canal was opened in 1820, 

 and when that oj)ening took place the newlj^ huilt 

 wharves of Pickford & Co. were ready, heside the 

 City Basin. To and from that point came and 

 went the water-horne trade, in the fly-hoats of 

 the firm, simultaneously with the fly-vans on the 

 roads. 



These developments hrought other changes, 

 and in 182G the existing headquarter offices of 

 Pickford & Co. were huilt in Gresham Street, 

 adjoining the " Castle " Inn. 



It will he interesting to see Avliat was the 

 cost of carriage of goods at this j)eriod. It was 

 the carriers' Golden Age, when, for distances of 

 a little over a hundred miles from London — as, 

 for example, Leicester and Birmingham — the 



