BOUND FOR THE BORDER 235 



Glasgow from London, a cloud of horsemen having 

 ridden out to meet it and escort it to the post-office 

 (as its official destination), and to the Saracen's Head 

 for more festive purposes. Down came the course of 

 post with London from ten days to five or six. The 

 mail-coach ran to a time-table of sixty-six hours, or 

 at the rate of about five and a half miles an hour. 



From the low speed of the new conveyance, it may 

 be inferred that the bad state of the roads had 

 delayed the extension of Palmer's system to Glasgow. 

 For it is on record that in 1739 (or, as a careful 

 commentator of my acquaintance, on the strength 

 of what seems to be sufficient evidence, puts it, 1783) 

 of highway there was literally none. Travellers on 

 horseback from Glasgow found nothing worth calling 

 a road until they reached Grantham. They rode 

 their horses on a narrow causewa}^ (when they had 

 the chance), with unmade tracks on either side. 

 Trains of pack-horses, on passing, unceremoniously 

 thrust them — now on to rough dry ground, but more 

 often into sloughs, girth-deep. Poorly mounted riders 

 fared ill. 



The Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, as would be 

 expected, have ever been alive as to the benefits ac- 

 cruing from an accelerated mail-service, not alone with 

 London, but, as the great West India trade of Glasgow 

 requires, with the port of arrival and despatch of the 

 West Lidia mails. 



In 1819, Thomas, Earl of Chichester, and James, 

 Marquis of Salisbury — His Majesty's Postmaster- 



