28 ON THE TRACK OF THE MAIL-COACH 



The struggle, I have little doubt, goes on still in 

 mail-train questions, inasmuch as numerous pas- 

 sengers and heavy luggage are sore hindrances to 

 punctuality. 



It is not easy, ho^Yever, to fix ^Yith absolute precision 

 on the number of passengers, exclusive of coachman 

 and guard, actually allowed to travel by the mail. In 

 the old fast post-coaches only four passengers, all 

 insides, \Yere carried ; and on the mail-coaches, in 

 1792, Mr. Herbert Joj-ce* speaks of five being allowed, 

 four inside and one outside, presumably next the 

 coachman. He adds that * in 1821, as in 1836, the 

 number of passengers by a mail-coach was limited to 

 four inside and four out '—total eight — but on some 

 coaches no more than three outside passengers were 

 allowed — total seven. In 1832, the Saturday Magazine 

 pictorially represented one outside passenger, and 

 assuming four passengers inside, the total would be 

 five. In Parliamentary evidence, in the late twenties, 

 I find the number spoken of as limited to six. 



The Liverpool and Preston fast mail, running in 

 the thirties, was built to carry only six passengers. 

 De Quincey speaks of seven, the four insides being 

 indignant at the presumption of the three outsides 

 seeking to dine with them. A surveyor's clerk of 

 1838, who travelled freely by the mail, tells me the 

 numbers were : one on the box, two behind the 

 coachman, four inside — total seven. A print of the 

 Quicksilver shows a like number. 



* ' History of the Post-Office,' H. Joyce, C.B. Bentley, 1893. 



