THE CORNISH MAIL 



119 



Andover was an important point as a junction of 

 highways, but the shortest cut from it to Exeter was 

 uncertain. A very careful investigation, however, 

 shewed that the Ihninster route, branching from 

 Andover, was the most direct of the three ways to 

 Exeter. This road, after leaving Andover, sixty-seven 

 miles from the General Post-Office, passes through frrt^\ 

 Amesbury, Wiley, Mere, Wincanton, and Ilchester, ^ . 

 ►sMu and after traversing Ilminster makes for the Devon- 

 ^'^ shire Inn and Honiton. The hostelry in the old'^'^i^ 

 ^ ^^r^ days bore a thatched roof and a ponderous sign. 

 P ^ Both have been removed. Seventeen years ago it 

 was converted into a farmhouse, and the only char- 

 ^^^ acteristic relic of its past is the porch, with sitting 

 ^f ^ ^jt- accommodation for tired and thirsty souls who halted 

 by the way. 



By Ilminster, the new route proved to be only 103 J 

 miles from Andover to Exeter, and so it brought 

 the post-office at that city within 170 J miles of St. 

 Martin's-le-Grand, as compared with 173J via Salis- 

 bury and Yeovil, and 176J via Salisbury, Blandford, 

 and Dorchester. When one looks at these roads on 

 the map, the distance by Blandford seems much 

 more than six miles the longest of all. 



To the Ilminster road the Quicksilver — some of 

 whose drivers are still living — was diverted. It 

 rattled along at ten and a half miles an hour, con- 

 tinuing the service without a check to Devonport (and, 

 indeed, by branch coach to Falmouth), and delivering 

 the mails at Exeter in 16J hours, at Devonport in 



