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CHAPTEE XIII. 



BOUND FOR THE BORDER. 



If the reader will be pleased to plant himself at 

 Hadley Highstone, at twenty minutes past eleven 

 o'clock at night, he may not hear the tuneful horn, 

 but he will certainly behold the stirring sight of a 

 brilliantly-lighted, well-horsed, Eoyal Mail parcel- 

 Coach rolling swiftly along the York road, on its way 

 to Hatfield and Bedford — the result of my very last 

 official efforts at the Post-Office. 



Sixty years ago, and two hours earlier in the even- 

 ing, this is w^hat another Eoyal Mail-coach, which 

 carried the Glasgow letter-bags, did every night in the 

 week on its way to Alconbury Hill. 



' All roads lead to Eome,' and whether the coach 

 for Scotland was despatched from Lombard Street or 

 St. Martin' s-le- Grand, and whether it travelled via 

 Biggleswade or via Eoyston, it inevitably came to 

 Alconbury Hill in about seven hours from London. 

 Thenceforward, to Wetherby or to Tadcaster (six miles 

 from Wetherby and nine miles from York), the road 

 was continued through Stamford and Doncaster. 



