RAIL AND ROAD. 1,3 



a crowd used to congregate at Hyde Park Corner 

 to see the coaches go by, as they do now at the 

 White Horse Cellars ; but it is a vastly different 

 thing playing at coaching as they do at the present 

 day, to making it the business of a lifetime, and to 

 know that, come fair or foul, we must undertake a 

 long wearisome journey, exposed to the inclemencies 

 of the weather. Although coaching in fine weather 

 must have been delightful, yet it cannot in bad winter 

 weather be compared with the luxury of a speedy 

 transition to one's destination in a comfortable first- 

 class railway carriage, with a warm rug over one's 

 knees, and the latest periodical literature lying on 

 the seat at your side. 



The engine-driver has taken the place of the 

 coachman, and the railway guard the place of the 

 mail and stage-coach guard. As for the guard on 

 a mail-coach, he was the servant of the Post Office, 

 although he had to make out the way-bill, collect the 

 passengers' fares, and render assistance to the coachman 

 when he needed it. The mail guard of the present 

 day still travels with the mails, but he never has any- 

 thing to do with the passengers, his duty being merely 

 to take charge of the mails ; but the ordinary guard of a 

 train acts towards the train and its passengers in the 

 same manner as did the guard of a stage-coach, except 

 that he does not collect their fares. 



Guards and coachmen in the old coaching days 

 used to be heavily tipped by the passengers. In 

 consequence of this they did not receive a high salary 

 from the proprietors. 



For a proprietor to put a coach on the road in the 

 old days was an expensive matter ; the turnpikes alone 

 frequently cost over ^10 a mile each month, besides 



