314 STAGE-COACH AND MAIL IN DAYS OF YORE 



the former place. On May 1st, 1811, the railway 

 was opened to Exeter, and the journey of the 

 poor old "Telegraph " was cut doAvn to 50 miles. 

 But those were spirited times, and even then, 

 driven thus into the West, there Avere com- 

 peting coaches. A " Nonpareil " Bristol and 

 Devonport coach had heen running daily at the 

 same hours as the " Telegraph," hut was taken 

 off, and a " Tally-Ho " put on the shorter Exeter 

 and Devonport trip. Then the racing became 

 furious. Up out of Exeter, on to the breezy 

 heights of llaldon, and by the skirts of Dartmoor 

 the two coaches sped — the " Telegraph," as Ward 

 tells us in his reminiscences, alwavs leadinii". 

 Several times they did the 50 miles in 3 hours 

 20 minutes, and for montlis together never 

 exceeded 1 hours ! 



That mad pace could not last; and so, as 

 neither could run the other off the road, they 

 agreed to keep it amical)ly for so long as the 

 railway, pushing irresistibly onward, would suffer 

 them to exist. On May 1st, 1S18, the South 

 Devon Eailway was opened to Plymouth, and 

 it seemed as though coaching in the West of 

 England Avas quite killed ; but a num1)er of 

 Cornish gentlemen approaching Ward with the 

 proposal that he should start a fast coach into 

 Cornwall, and promising to support it, he ^\\i 

 a "Tally-Ho" on tlie road betAvcen Plymouth, 

 Truro and Ealmoutli, a distance of 02 miles. 

 He Avas so fortvuiate as to be offered the 

 contract for carrying the mail betAveen those 



