256 ON THE TRACK OF THE MAIL-COACH 



Ho\Yever, I have begun my story t^Yenty-fou^ years 

 too late. 



In 1837, in Ireland, as in Great Britain, coaching 

 had reached the pitch of perfection. All recollections 

 of the eleven years of famine, which occurred between 

 1724 and 1772, had passed away, and from 1782 set 

 in a period in which Ireland, said an orator of 1800, 

 ' had risen in civilization, in wealth, in manufactures, 

 in a greater proportion, and with a more rapid 

 progress, than any other country in Europe.' Mail- 

 coaches played a part in the upward movement. 



In spite of all the prosperity of Ireland at this 

 period, it is strange how much ignorance prevailed, 

 in the early part of the century, about the means 

 of communication with its shores. Miss Austen 

 makes one of her heroines declare that the Isle of 

 Wight is the proper place of embarkation ; Miss 

 Plumptre, who wrote a book on Ireland, on the 

 strength of visits in 1814 and 1815, decides, on the 

 advice of an experienced friend, to proceed (pre- 

 sumably from London) to Bristol, and there engage 

 a passage on a trading-vessel to Dublin. But at 

 Bristol no such vessel is to be found ; so, on further 

 advice, she takes the coach through Gloucester and 

 Salop to Liverpool, and there obtains passage by the 

 packet for a guinea. 



At this epoch (1814) strange legislation affecting 

 the Post-Office was still operative. The 13th and 

 14th of Charles II., chapter 11, section 22, prohibited 

 all English packets from taking parcels ; and the 



