100 ON THE TRACK OF THE MAIL-COACH 



and South-Western Kailway in May, 1840, allowed 

 for the first time of the delivery of the mails by rail 

 from London in the town itself ; and the anchoring, a 

 year or so later, in Southampton Water of the first 

 mail-packet which the Peninsular and Oriental Steam 

 Navigation Company sent into the estuary, marked 

 the rise of Southampton as a great port. 



When Lieutenant-Colonel Paterson compiled his 

 road-book, the most he could say about the packet- 

 service from Southampton was that soon after the 

 arrival of the mail-coach from London, a packet sailed 

 every morning for Cow^es, in the Isle of Wight, and 

 returned to Southampton, in winter at three, and in 

 summer at four o'clock. 



That was the egg which, being w^armed and hatched 

 by the enterprise of shipping companies and the 

 town of Southampton, has developed into a bird of 

 stupendous dimensions. The little Isle-of- Wight 

 service still goes on every day except Sunday, and it 

 calls on Parliament annually for a modest vote. But 

 fleets of floating palaces passing to and fro between 

 Southampton and the ends of the earth overshadow 

 the Cowes boat, and unduly dwarf its importance and 

 antiquity. 



The earlier event, viz., the opening of the railway, 

 resulted in benefits which at once came home to 

 every one but those associated with the coaching 

 interest (who of course saw no good in it). At a 

 swoop the journey from London — from the Post- 

 OfQce, from the Spread Eagle in Gracechurch Street, 



