THE STORY OF PICKFORD AND CO. 137 



keenness of the sporting instincts of the official 

 concerned— tells ho ay Mr. Baxendale, on coming 

 to Eraunston, a Northamptonshire village on the 

 Grand Jnnction Canal, discovered that the man 

 A\-ho should have been in charge of his wharf there 

 had gone hunting, mounted on one of the firm's 

 towing-path steeds. Records of that time do 

 not tell us of that sportsman's return, or of the 

 reception that met him. 



It Avas perhaps a consequence of the strenuous 

 rule then obtaining that, at a time when the great 

 roads to the north Avere blocked by the historic 

 snoAVstorm of Christmas 183(3, Avhen the stage- 

 coaches and the mails Avere buried in the drifts, 

 Pickford's Manchester Hying Van AA^as first 

 through. AVe may suppose tliat the horses Avere 

 better specimens than those pictured here, from an 

 old painting, Avhich represents the fly-van team 

 as a very sorry one indeed, comparing badly Avith 

 tlie sturdy animals Avho are seen drawing the van 

 in the first picture. 



It would 1)0 a mistake to think that Baxendale's 

 Avays Avith his staff Avere merely those of the 

 strict disciplinarian, only anxious to obtain the 

 utmost from them. His kindliness Avas perhaps 

 his strongest point, and Pickford's under his rule 

 began the practice of recognising the loyalty and 

 hard Avork of their servants by pensioning them on 

 their retirement — a policy that still does honour 

 to the firm. 



Under this vigorous sAvay Pickford's grcAV and 

 prospered, and by the tiuie Avhen raihvays first 



