158 ON THE TRACK OF THE MAIL-COACH 



hatter, who, no doubt, bought and furbished up these 

 articles whenever he could get them ; and passengers, 

 to whom such hats were a novelty, purchased at the 

 junction the very last of its kind daily from off the 

 head of his far-seeing wife. 



One Welsh postwoman, however, of the tall-hat 

 period must not be forgotten. If the pleasant town 

 of AVhitby has produced a John Percival, South Wales 

 has not been without its Nanny Loughor. When, 

 two years ago, John Percival, postman, put down his 

 wallet at Whitby at the age of seventy-two, after 

 forty- six years' service as a postman, a bag of chinking 

 sovereigns was an earnest of local appreciation. 



Mr. Percival had run his long course without being 

 absent a single day from sickness, and without being 

 reported for a single fault, and he had safely delivered 

 nearly six millions of letters, and walked, in the dis- 

 charge of his duty, not very far short of ninety 

 thousand miles. 



Fifty 3^ears earlier, in January, 1837, there was 

 living at Neath, in Glamorganshire, Nanny Loughor, 

 w^ho had then attained the great age of ninety-one 

 (some say ninety-two), but was as erect as a young 

 woman of twenty. She had for forty-five years carried 

 the post between Neath and Swansea. 



In so doing, Nanny walked, it is said, more than 

 ninety thousand miles. However, this can only be a 

 rough estimate, and probably below the true total. 

 For w^hen Ann Price, postwoman between Bristol and 

 Chewmagna, died in 1837, after twenty-eight years' 



