ir2 HIGH IV AYS AND HORSES. 



altered for the worse, and that is not for the want 

 of knowledge, but from want of interest, encourage- 

 ment, and perseverance. 



There is no doubt that in some remote portions of 

 the United Kingdom coaches will continue to run for a 

 great many years yet — that is, in those places where 

 it would not pay to construct a railroad ; but a person 

 need not be very old at the present time to recollect 

 well the last of the coaches working on the great main 

 roads, since I see by the Times newspaper it was as 

 late as October, 1843, that the London and Bristol 

 coach, the " Prince of Wales," was taken off the road ; 

 and it is still later, in September, 1847, that the 

 celebrated " Quicksilver " mail-coach was withdrawn 

 from the Plymouth and Exeter road. I see that 

 the Bath and Bristol Railway was opened on 

 September 31st, 1840; consequently the coach must 

 have been running at the same time as the locomotive. 

 I am unable to say when the Exeter and Plymouth 

 line was opened. 



Mr. Harris says that the stables in the " Bull and 

 Mouth " yard appeared like a small town when he 

 visited them, and the horse-keeper, as he went round 

 with visitors, would enumerate the various teams in 

 the followino- manner : " Those are the Glaspfow mail 

 horses, those are the Edinburgh, those are the Halifax 

 ' Help,' those the Worcester night-coach, and those 

 the Exeter and North Devon, or some other niofht- 

 coach that would leave in the afternoon or evening ; " 

 and so on, no doubt, throughout the stable. Every 

 yard varied in the quality and kind of horses emploj^ed, 

 each proprietor having his own particular fancy ; con- 

 sequently those who were well acquainted with the 

 various yards could frequently distinguish to whom 



