46 ON THE TRACK OF THE MAIL-COACH 



and only five later on, so that seven night mail- 

 coaches, instead of twenty-four, drove up to the Post- 

 Office. On Wednesday an improvement was notice- 

 able : fifteen coaches arrived in the course of the day. 

 On Thursday, twenty, and on Frida}^, the 30th, all, 

 except the Dover mail, reached London. 



When the facts of Boxing Day were known, the 

 Surveyor of Mail-Coaches, although ill and in bed, 

 was equal to the occasion. On Tuesday, the 27th, he 

 arose, brushed his doctor aside and came down to the 

 office. Calling the London mail contractors together, 

 he laid his plans, and with eleven coaches, instead 

 of twenty-seven, despatched Tuesday's night mail ; 

 grouping the bags on selected vehicles in order, as he 

 graphically expressed it, ' to rake the kingdom.' 



One coach to Salisbury took all three loads for the 

 Exeter roads ; a Bristol coach cleared off the West of 

 England mail. The Norwich coach, via Newmarket, 

 swept most of the eastern counties ; lateral expresses 

 branched off here and there, and filled in the gaps. 

 The Holyhead and the Manchester coaches provided 

 for half the Midlands, the great towns redistributing 

 the mails, where the roads were open, right and left. 



The Edinburgh coach, drawn by six horses, con- 

 veyed all the Scotch bags — the Glasgow mail as well 

 as its own — and masses of bags for the Eastern Mid- 

 lands. So heavy was the combined mail, so im- 

 portant, so difficult to redistribute with accuracy, that 

 the Surveyor sent down with the coach one of the 

 most dependable of his officers to see it safely through. 



