238 ON THE TRACK OF THE MAIL-COACH 



However, neither city had much to complain of 

 when, some years later, the London mail-coaches got 

 respectively to Edinburgh at two twenty- three, and to 

 Glasgow at two o'clock in the afternoon. 



A few years previously, when the Battle of Waterloo 

 was won, the mail-coach which brought the news to 

 Glasgow bore, it is said, a red flag on its roof, the 

 coach -horses being adorned with laurels. ' The 

 guard, dressed in his scarlet coat and gold orna- 

 mentals, came galloping at a thundering pace along 

 the stones of Gallowgate, making for the post-office 

 in East Albion Street, and sounding his bugle amidst 

 the echoing of the streets ; and when he arrived at 

 the foot of Nelson Street, he discharged his blunder- 

 buss in the air.' 



Not many pulses but beat the quicker along Clyde- 

 side on such a day. 



The mail-guard's eagerness rivalled the enthusiasm 

 which a Westminster reviewer of 1852 recalled ' of 

 the crowds which, in the time of the Peninsular 

 War, blocked up the streets of every provincial 

 town, when day after day mail-coaches, with flags 

 proudly flying, brought news of battles fought and 

 won.' 



In 1837, under the improvement just glanced at, a 

 letter reached Glasgow from London in forty- two 

 hours. But Dr. Cleland records the result of an 

 effort of posting, which took place five years earlier, 

 and which throws into the shade the best performance 

 of Her Majesty's mail-coach. 



