32 ON THE TRACK OF THE MAIL-COACH 



still, amongst others the Gloucester and Brighton 

 mail, which commenced running on August 16, 1836. 

 It left Gloucester at two a.m., and reached Brighton 

 (152 miles 6 furlongs) at five p.m., starting from 

 Brighton on the return journey at seven-thirty a.m. 

 As this was about the last mail-coach established, 

 some details may not be out of place. It ran at ten 

 miles an hour, and cost — at threepence a mile for the 

 horses, at 2Jd. for the coach itself, for tolls at bridges 

 and for wages of three guards — in the aggregate, 

 £1,354 a year. 



Some idea of the postal defects it was designed to 

 remedy may be gathered from the fact that the towns 

 of Gloucester and Chippenham, distant from each 

 other only thirty-five miles, were five days' post apart. 



So much did passenger traffic hinge on convenience 

 of hours, that, had the mails been despatched from 

 Gloucester at five a.m., rather than two a.m., the 

 contractors would have accepted nearly five hundred 

 pounds a year less from the Post-Office. 



Such accelerations as had been achieved cheered 

 the heart of the dying Secretary. It had ever been 

 with him, he wrote to Lord Lichfield, ' a favourite 

 object to put the great communications between the 

 principal towns on the best possible footing,' and 

 what his assistants had accomplished went far towards 

 that object. The important measures shaped were, 

 Freeling declared, ' in pursuance of the earnest desire 

 we have all felt to improve the posts of the country.' 

 I know not if these loyal and kindly words were the 



