150 ON THE TRACK OF THE MAIL-COACH 



Birmingham ; but when that vast work, the Severn 

 Tunnel, was completed, it became possible to organize 

 a through postal service from Bristol, via Hereford 

 and Shrewsbury, to Crewe, and so to Liverpool and 

 all parts of the North and North-West. Thus the 

 elbow at Birmingham was avoided, and the course of 

 post quickened. 



The Severn from bank to bank, between New 

 Passage and Portskewet, is about two and a quarter 

 miles wide, though from pier to pier the distance is 

 only a mile and a half. At high-water, and in the 

 daytime, crossing by ferry-boat was all very well ; at 

 low-water, and at night, in cold stormy weather, it 

 was, I recollect, not so pleasant. One stepped out of 

 a railway- carriage, warmed by occupation, on to a 

 windy platform near the water's edge, descended a 

 kind of wet scaffolding or stairway, and got on board 

 the ferry-boat. 



If the tide were running fast, the arc of a great 

 circle had to be followed, so as to hit off the opposite 

 landing-place to a nicety. A freshet, too, might occur 

 in the Severn, and there was the prospect of a cold, 

 because unoccupied, railway-carriage to get into at the 

 other end. However, to send the mails this way 

 saved time. A bag could be got from Bristol to 

 Cardiff by Portskewet in two and a half hours, 

 whereas to send it by way of Gloucester usually took 

 about five hours. 



The great tunnel follows the course of the New 

 Passage ferry. It dips from the level of the railway 



