4 ON THE TRACK OF THE MAIL-COACH 



Lombard Street, and satisfy them as best he 

 could. 



According to West's splendid work on the ' Signs of 

 Old Lombard Street,'* this same Robert Yiner (or 

 Vyner) set up the statue, removed in 1779, of John 

 Sobieski, on horseback, trampling on the Turk. 

 Times changing, he put a new head on the statue, and 

 made it do duty for Charles II. trampling on Oliver 

 Cromwell, thus forestalling in effect the example of 

 the versatile Yicar of Bray. 



By this time the General Post-Office of the day had 

 outgrown the scanty accommodation of Cloak Lane ; 

 and early in the last century Sir Robert's house, 

 being available, was acquired by the Government, 

 which transferred the Post-Offfce to it. To Yiner's 

 spacious brick building entrance was obtained from 

 Lombard Street by a gateway, part of the site of 

 which is now occupied by the Guardian Office. The 

 gateway opened into a quadrangle. Like all adapted 

 buildings, it was ill suited for a post-ofifice. A public 

 passage cut through the property from one lane to the 

 other ; another open way, which still exists, struck 

 through the very heart of the group of buildings (for 

 there were several) from Lombard Street to what is 

 now King William Street. But at all events here was 

 more space than in Cloak Lane. 



In Lombard Street sat Anthony Todd, when, as 

 Secretary of the Post-Office, he drafted the dismissal 

 of Benjamin Franklin from the office of postal agent 



* Leadenhall Press. 



