124 HIGHWAYS AND HORSES. 



if fodder was not too high a price, three pounds a 

 month per mile paid all expenses. The profits of a 

 coach were divided monthly ; the mails had neither 

 duties nor turnpike-gates to pay, since they were the 

 property of the Crown. 



Parcels were charged twopence, and were the 

 source of considerable revenue. Articles of value were 

 registered and insured. 



A strange thing happened to the Salisbury mail 

 when upon its journey from London to Exeter. One 

 dark night, whilst passing through Salisbury Plain, the 

 coachman saw what he thought to be a big calf trotting 

 beside his leaders. The horses became very restive, 

 and the coachman had some difficulty in handling 

 them. Suddenly the supposed calf made a spring on 

 the back of one of the leading horses. The guard 

 thereupon evinced great pluck ; he sprang down from 

 his seat on the coach, and with a pistol he shot the 

 animal dead. It proved to be a large lioness that had 

 escaped from a travelling caravan ; she had previously 

 attacked a horse in a carrier's cart, which she killed 

 and mutilated. 



Exeter was a great stopping-place for coaches 

 working through to the West of England. About 

 seventy coaches left that city daily, Sundays excepted : 

 the Launceston, Bath, Truro, Plymouth, Dorchester, 

 Falmouth, and London. The London mail was called 

 the " Quicksilver ; " it was one of the fastest coaches 

 in England, as the Exeter mail train is one of the 

 fastest trains out of town at the present time. This 

 coach used to perform the journey, one hundred and 

 sixty-six miles, in twenty hours, provided the weather 

 permitted such fast travelling. This mail was driven 

 out of London by Charles Ward, lately the proprietor 



