COACH PROPRIETORS. 127 



not start without the mails, and the guards in charge 

 of them had therefore to be extremely punctual in 

 their attendance. Mail-carts now take the mail-bags 

 in exactly the same way to the principal railway 

 stations. 



Twenty-seven mail-coaches left London every 

 night. Fourteen of these were horsed by Chaplin ; 

 they went to Norwich, Holyhead, Devonport, Liver- 

 pool, Manchester, Bristol, Halifax, Hull, Portsmouth, 

 Bath, Dover, Southampton, and Poole, Stroud, and 

 Wells. When he did not personally supply the 

 horses, he employed a sub -contractor to do so. He 

 had two hundred coaches ; he had another establish- 

 ment in Gracechurch Street, called the "Spread 

 Eagle," but it was not so large as the " Swan with 

 Two Necks." The Kentish and Surrey coaches started 

 from Gracechurch Street. Chaplin owned three of 

 the fastest coaches out of town, the Bristol, Devon - 

 port, and Holyhead. These started from the "Swan 

 with Two Necks," Lad Lane, Wood Street, Cheapside 

 — which was once called facetiously " The Wonderful 

 Bird," Boy Lane, Timber Street, Reasonable Place. 

 The next largest coach proprietor to Chaplin w^as a 

 Mr. Sherman. He is said to have been a member 

 of the Stock Exchange. He married three old ladies 

 one after the other. He rebuilt a famous old inn 

 called the " Bull and Mouth," where he constructed 

 very large underground stables. He was also a large 

 proprietor of vans and waggons, which started from 

 the "Oxford Arms Inn," in Newgate Market. The 

 "Bull and Mouth" was exactly opposite the General 

 Post Office, at the end of Aldersgate Street. Sherman 

 had five coaches running to Birmingham ; this he 

 eventually increased to nine. He was the originator 



