66 ON THE TRACK OF THE MAIL-COACH 



to the Waterside at Barton, it is said, as early as 

 1723, but it was nearly eighty years later, i.e., not 

 until April, 1801, that Hull for the first time received 

 its London mail direct by this route. 



The cathedral city, it is said, was put into com- 

 munication with the Metropolis b}^ mail-coach in 1786. 

 But Lincoln's only connection northward was by 

 means of the stage-coach mentioned, and that vehicle, 

 it is probable, carried no bags. Hull got its London 

 letters from York off the London and Edinburgh mail, 

 and little Barton-on-Humber procured its handful 

 of correspondence by tapping the same source at 

 Bawtry, near Doncaster. Letters between Barton 

 and Hull went a long way round. 



At last the Lincoln coach was extended to Barton 

 and the Ferry. Sending its passengers to Hessle 

 or Hull by the steamer, it stabled itself and its 

 horses at the Waterside Inn, and did so until about 

 1837, when the service ceased. This hostelry is worth 

 remembering. It was a substantial building, consist- 

 ing of a central block and two wings, with spacious 

 courtyard and offices in rear. Only the north wing 

 remains in occupation ; the rest has long since been 

 pulled down. Cattle, which used to crowd the ferry, 

 pass by rail ; such local mails as cross the water go, 

 for the most part, by the steamer to New Holland, 

 and Barton's place in the great machine of public 

 locomotion seem^s to be no longer. 



The post-office of Hull, like some other great postal 

 centres, can recall the day, at the end of the eighteenth 



