300 STAGE-COACH AND MAIL IN DAYS OF YORE 



connected with Caml)riclge, Ave know a good deal. 

 He drove the Lynn " Union " for many years. 

 Born in 1791, he died in 1877, in his eighty-sixth 

 year. Ilis occnpancy of the liox-seat lasted 

 from 1821 to 1817, wlien his coaching career 

 was hrought to a close hy the opening of the 

 length of railway between Cambridge, Ely, and 

 King's Lynn. His was a remarkable history. 

 His father, John Cross, from l)eing a highly 

 prosperous coach-proprietor, with large estates 

 and considerable social standing in the district 

 between Petersfield and Portsmouth, was gradually 

 brought low by misfortune and reckless specula- 

 tions. John Cross, Avith the wealth and status of 

 a 'country squire, had given his son Thomas an 

 excellent education, and had destined him for 

 the Navy ; but serious attacks of epilepsy, and 

 the results of an accident caused from fallina^ 

 in one of these fits on a number of Avine-bottles, 

 cut his career in the Service short. He Avas a 

 midshipman Avhen these distressing circumstances 

 entirely altered his future. He then started 

 farming, but misfortune dogged his ste2)s. As 

 OAvners of horses, himself and his father fared 

 no better, for the terrible disease of glanders 

 broke out and quickly carried off 120 animals. 

 Eventually ruin faced the family, and Thomas 

 Cross at last Avas reduced to seeking employment 

 as a Avhip in the very j^ard once oAvned by his 

 father. At the age of thirty, tlien, married and 

 Avith a family of his OAvn to support, Ave perceive 

 liim pretty tlioroughly graduated in tlie scliool of 



