LOMBARD STREET 13 



cook of last night may not become the ruler of a 

 province to-day.' No longer is a leaf taken from the 

 book of the Sultan Osman, who is said to have been 

 so impressed by the dexterity with which a gardener 

 planted cabbages that he forthwith appointed him 

 to be Viceroy of Cyprus. 



Mail-coach developments, although extensive, had 

 not reached the full at Lombard Street. The greatest 

 achievements were 3'et to come. 



Mail robberies troubled the official mind most. 

 Great care was taken, not always with success, to 

 secure safe stowage of the bags in a special box built 

 into the body of the mail-coach, and fastened by 

 lock and key. The exact dimensions of the mail-box 

 are not on record, but the few guards remaining 

 agree in their recollection that it was three or four 

 feet wide and deep, and perhaps a couple of feet 

 broad. 



An old colleague of mine, a great traveller by coach, 

 disdaining all measurements, puts it neatly, that the 

 mail-box would just hold a man doubled up. This 

 would have been an obvious advantage had the duties 

 of guard included the ' doubling up ' of a refractory 

 passenger or negligent official, and stowing away the 

 remains out of sight. 



The rule was for the guard, when sitting on his 

 perch at the back of the coach, to keep his feet 

 on the locked lid. On the Bristol and Portsmouth 

 mail, it was not unusual, when the box was full, for 

 the guard to sling some bags beside him. No pas- 



