86 HIGHWAYS AND HORSES. 



had rather a harder time of it than the ordinary stage- 

 coach guards, as they were responsible for the safety 

 of the mails, and the speed and punctuality with which 

 they were forwarded to their destination. In heavy 

 snow-storms, or when the road was almost Impassable, 

 the coachman had to push on at all hazards ; but when 

 his coach came to a standstill and could be moved 

 no further, it was then the guard who had to take 

 matters in his own hands, to remove the mails from 

 the coach, and, taking a couple of horses, fight his 

 way on at the peril of his life. 



I do not know that anything gives one a better 

 idea of the discomfort and danger of road travelling, 

 in the depth of winter, than the tales that have been 

 handed down to us of how the roads were blocked 

 during heavy snow-storms. Even trains at the 

 present day sometimes find it impossible to make 

 their way through a snow-drift, but this is rarely the 

 case in this country ; in Canada and in Russia, snow- 

 ploughs are attached to the front of the locomotives ; 

 but, so far as Great Britain is concerned, we are 

 exempt from such disasters save in exceptional cases. 



It is only in Scotland that a heavy snow-storm 

 can seriously hinder and obstruct a train. I learn 

 from the Ti7nes of the 3rd of January, 1854, that there 

 was at that time a severe snow-storm, accompanied 

 by intense cold, which prevailed throughout the whole 

 of England. In London the thermometer indicated 

 8° below zero. The North-Western line was blocked 

 up at the Tring Cutting, and a mail-train lay imbedded 

 there for five hours ; the Great Northern was blocked 

 up on both rails at Grantham, and traffic between 

 Peterborough and Newark became Impossible both 

 by road or rail. 



