WESTWARD HO ! 261 



hours ; to Enniskillen, 7Sj miles, in 13J hours ; and 

 to Larne, 18 miles, in 3J hours. 



Mention of the Enniskillen mail reminds me of a 

 little anecdote. Of course, the correct phrase to 

 denote the official emptying of a pillar-post or wall- 

 box is ' clearance ' or ' collection.' But in Bundoran, 

 a small, pretty watering-place on the Donegal coast, 

 which I used occasionally to visit on trips from 

 Enniskillen to Sligo, a wholly different phrase is 

 current. * Is there not a letter-box along that road ?' 

 inquired a friend the other day at noon. * 'Tis so, 

 your honour,' was the civil reply ; ' but,' added the 

 informant, ' it is not until eight o'clock the box will 

 be robbed.' 



It was on a journey from Belfast to Dublin, in 1812, 

 that the elder Charles Mathews, the comedian, had a 

 lucky escape from highway robbery. The Belfast fly 

 in which he had taken his place carried ten inside 

 passengers. At Drogheda, at three o'clock in the 

 morning, Mathews left it, and procured a bed at the 

 inn, meaning to continue his journey next day. No 

 sooner had the fly moved on without him towards 

 Balbriggan than highwaymen stopped it, compelled 

 the nine passengers to alight, threatened them with 

 instant death, and robbed them of two thousand 

 pounds. Mathews, safe in his bed, had three 

 hundred pounds with him, besides a quantity of 

 stage-clothing, all of which he would have lost but for 

 the timely sense of fatigue which caused him to rest 

 the night at Drogheda. 



