MAIL-COACHMEN. 123 



clares that Chaplin had one thousand seven hundred 

 horses eng^aeed in coachino^ ; he used to dine his 

 coachmen once every year, and at this dinner he 

 presided himself. A mail-coach was always expected 

 to have its lamps lit after sunset, just as ships at sea 

 are forced to carry lights, when the sun sinks below 

 the horizon. On the King's birthday, all the mails 

 used to go in procession, the guards and coachmen 

 all in their new scarlet liveries, the horses with new 

 harness, and frequently decorated with flowers, in 

 this manner they promenaded the principal streets 

 of the metropolis. Mail-coachmen used to drive 

 Qfreat distances. The writer to whom I have made 

 reference says that a man named Ward drove from 

 Hounslow to Bagshot, at which place he relieved the 

 London coachman, he returned with the up-mail, 

 leaving Bagshot at 3 a.m. doing sixty miles a night; 

 this he did for seven years. Another coachman, 

 named Harbridge, drove the Manchester mail for 

 two years out of London, performing one hundred 

 miles everv nio-ht. 



J o 



There is one thinor to be said about the lives 

 coachmen led ; they could not have been wholesome — 

 although so much time was spent in the open air — 

 since they had to sit for hours in one position, without 

 any chance of obtaining exercise to restore their 

 circulation, in cold weather. Although enveloped in 

 big coats and numerous wraps, they must have suffered 

 terriblv, and in order to infuse some warmth into 

 their bodies, they frequently drank to excess ; this, 

 coupled with the long hours of partial inactivity, 

 predisposed them to ill health and disease. Captain 

 Haworth says that many of the coaches would earn 

 from five to six pounds a mile per month ; and 



