2 32 STAGE-COACH AND MAIL IN DAYS OF YORE 



but even Bull and Moutli Street was stopped up 

 and built over. The still-existing Angel Street, 

 close by, between " G.P.O. North" and " G.P.O. 

 West," marks where another coaching inn, the 

 " Angel," once stood. 



Robert Nelson, Avho entered so keenly into 

 rivalry Avith Sherman over the Manchester 

 business, was one of the three sons of Mrs. Ann 

 Nelson, of the " Eull Inn," Whitechapel. Not 

 the Bull " Hotel," for Mrs. Nelson most resolutely 

 set her face against that ncAV-fangled word ; and 

 as an " inn " the house was known to the very 

 last. An excellent inn it was — one of the very 

 best. It did not seem strange then, as un- 

 doubtedly it would noAV be, for so high-class a 

 house to be situated in this quarter of London. 

 Whitechapel of that time was vastly different 

 from the disrej)utable place it is to-day ; but the 

 prime reason of so fine an inn as the " Bull " 

 being situated here was that this Avas the starting- 

 point of many routes into the eastern counties, 

 and, just as railway hotels form a usual adjunct 

 of raihvay termini, so did Mrs. Nelson j^ossess 

 an excellent hotel business in addition to the 

 important and highly successful coaches that set 

 out from her yard and stables. 



The " Bull," Whitechajiel, Avas sometimes — 

 and Avith equal, if not better, exactness — knoAvn as 

 the " Bull," Aldgate, for it Avas numbered 25 in 

 Aldgate High Street. The relentless hand of 

 " im2)rovement " SAvept it aAvay in 18G8, but until 

 that year it presented the picture of a typical old 



