BY THE NEW FOREST 95 



should probably have traversed the old well-worn 

 Salisbury and Exeter mail-coach road — passing from 

 London by Kensington Palace Gate, through Houn- 

 slow, over the Thames at Staines, by Virginia Water, 

 and so to the Golden Farmer. This is a little way- 

 side inn near Bagshot. It is a landmark of some 

 importance to travellers, for near the inn the high- 

 way divides, the main line going on to Basingstoke, 

 the branch divergmg due South. 



The Golden Farmer has had a share in the history 

 of the road ; for there was a time when Turpin 

 (affecting all mail-coach routes out of London alike, 

 and being engaged on business which admitted of no 

 delay) frequented Bagshot Heath and Hartford Bridge 

 Flats, and stabled his nag at this inn. 



It was a vantage-point : he could take either the 

 Basingstoke road and look after the Falmouth or 

 Devonport mail and the night coaches and j)ost- 

 chaises which kept the way busy and profitable, or, if 

 disposed towards a quiet evening, he might amuse 

 himself with the watches of sober folk making for the 

 New Forest. If, again, he was in good trim, his 

 purse low, and Black Bess in high fettle, w-as there 

 not the main road to London at his disposal, and his 

 Majesty's mails both going and coming ? 



The parcel coach w^ould have gone over the river 

 Blackwater and through Farnham and Winchester 

 to Southampton — a distance from St. Martin's-le- 

 Grand, as nearly as possible, of eighty miles. This 

 was the route of the old mail-coach, which, leaving 



