222 ON THE TRACK OF THE MAIL-COACH 



Stilton, which is seventy-five miles from London, 

 was also a town of postal importance. From it took 

 place a liberal distribution of mails ; for although 

 Norman (or Norman's) Cross was the actual junction 

 with the Great North Koad of the mail-road through 

 Peterborough to Boston, Lincoln, and Hull, yet 

 Stilton, six furlongs south, was a posting- station and 

 Norman Cross was not. 



At Alconbury Hill the Wheatsheaf stood in its own 

 grounds, a hundred yards north of the junction of 

 the two great roads, which, at a distance from London 

 of sixty-five miles by way of Eoyston, and sixty-eight 

 by Biggleswade, merge there into the direct mail-road 

 to Scotland, already mentioned. 



I refer to the ancient inn, not the modern one. 

 The latter is planted at the actual junction of the 

 roads, but the original building is recessed sixty 

 yards from the trunk road, and separated from it 

 by a spacious garden and coach-sweep. It is now 

 divided into two residences, one of which is a farm- 

 house. Both are in private occupation. Conspicuous 

 on the lawn of the farmer's neighbour may be seen, 

 overgrown with ivy, the Wheatsheaf's sign. 



The past yet survives vigorously at Alconbury ; for 

 its postmaster, connecting the present with a period 

 when the Wheatsheaf was in its glory, recollects the 

 coaches sweeping up to its cheerful door. He bears 

 in mind, too, the beginning of the end, when Land- 

 lord Warsop retired from business on the cessation of 

 the road-traffic, and the boy, who is now the man. 



