48 ON THE TRACK OF THE MAIL-COACH 



a saddle-horse, and carried his bags to Marlborough, 

 accomplishing twelve miles in six hours. At Marl- 

 borough post-horses were available. He tried a short 

 cut through Savernake Forest (the same ' lawny 

 thickets of Marlborough ' which De Quincey speaks of), 

 only to be baffled by the snow, and compelled to turn 

 back to the highroad. Thereon he found several 

 coaches buried wheel- deep, and blocking the way. 

 Intent on his own mails, he contrived, by great 

 exertions, to run the blockade and get to Hungerford. 

 Here the Great Western Eoad became clearer, and, 

 with spirit unabated, this valorous official set himself 

 to make up lost time. In fifty-eight miles he regained 

 an hour and ten minutes, and at last reached the 

 General Post-Office. When he got there, he heard 

 that all the mail-coaches due off the Western Koad 

 were missing. 



Moore, guard of the Worcester mail, was overturned 

 during the night in a snow-drift, but by great strength 

 and activity he righted the coach, and, impounding 

 carthorses, brought it forward to Enstone. He must 

 have been own cousin to the man — if not the man 

 himself — (an Irishman, by the way) who, according 

 to tradition, in the north yard of the General Post- 

 Office, got underneath a mail-coach, arched his back, 

 and, in the presence of the Postmaster-General of the 

 day (who had wagered a dozen of port with a friend), 

 lifted all four wheels clean off the ground. A mail- 

 coach weighed not far short of a ton. 



Mr. C. Boniface, of Summerhill, Dublin, is another 



