LANDMARKS 43 



and Manchester ; to Carlisle, and to the Far North. 

 On other highroads, the best in the world, I shall 

 follow the track of the Koyal mail-coach in Ireland. 



While direct attacks of freebooters on the coaches, 

 or the furtive theft of bags, might be frustrated by 

 incessant vigilance, a sufiicient armament, and an 

 effective constabulary patrol, there was one formidable 

 difficulty which no foresight could evade, no lapse of 

 time eliminate, and that was the snowfall which, in 

 any winter, might stop up the mail-roads altogether. 



