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CHAPTEE X. 



VIA ST. ALBANS. 



If I am acquainted with one part of England better 

 than another, it is surely the first twelve or fifteen 

 miles of the London and Holyhead road, from the 

 General Post-Office, or from ' where Hicks's Hall 

 formerly stood,' to the Highstone at Hadley (' Hadley 

 Pillar,' my predecessor, Thomas Tasker, who measured 

 its distance from Lombard Street in 1795, and found 

 it to be rather more than twelve and a half miles, 

 preferred to call it), or to the site of the old turnpike- 

 gate at South Mims. 



' Never more,' wrote a lively author, nearly fifty 

 years ago — ' never more, as St. Paul's clock is verging 

 towards eight, shall we hurry down the narrow 

 outlet of the Swan with Two Necks, Lad Lane, 

 and secure the place of honour on the box of the 

 Holyhead mail, for a ten miles' ride on a summer's 

 evening. A short ride by the mail — we can only say 

 of it as Johnson said to Boswell in a post-chaise : 

 "Life has not many better things than this." 

 Cautiously the skilful coachman, in his pride of 



