BY THE NEW FOREST gy 



known of the imposture which had been carried 

 within measurable distance of success. 



There are two roads from London to Poole on the 

 western side of the Forest. The longer goes from 

 Winchester, via Eomsey, and then winds by forest 

 glades to Poole. 



At Piomsey was to be seen, in the old mail-coach 

 days, an apple-tree on the roof of the abbey church, 

 which had grown there from an unknown date. A 

 lady still living in Komsey (daughter of the post- 

 master whose office arrangements I inspect6d in the 

 seventies) recollects eating apples from this very tree. 

 It probably disappeared when the roof was renewed, 

 some time in the fifties. 



In those days the up and down mail-coaches 

 passed through Piomsey in the night ; the mails were 

 habitually hauled up to or lowered from the bed- 

 room window. Heavy- eyed with sleep, after a long 

 country walk, the postmaster once let down in error, 

 as the Postmaster of Barnet had done, a domestic 

 bundle, which, on the arrival of the coach in London, 

 puzzled the ' tick ' officer not a little. 



These droll mis-sendings still continue, but in other 

 ways. The sorting-carriage which runs nightl}^ from 

 Manchester to Crewe picks up, by apparatus, bags 

 from some of the principal Cheshire towns which are 

 not on the direct mail line of railway to London. 



The bags are brought some miles by horse and 

 cart to a wayside station, and the driver of the 

 mailcart, after packing them in leathern pouches, 



7 



