PILLARS OF THE PAST 315 



the General Post-Office in closed omnibuses of the 

 heaviest build and gloomiest design. They were 

 named accelerators, as being the means of depositing 

 the men at the beginning of their walks sooner than 

 they could reach them on foot. No doubt the accele- 

 rators did so ; but, rudely built and poorly horsed, 

 they were an eyesore in the streets. 



On the other hand, the late Mr. Macnamara, who 

 contracted for conveying the mails to the Metropolitan 

 boundary on the Great North Eoad, put on light, 

 elegantly-built and splendidly-horsed four-in-hand 

 omnibuses — Eoyal Mails, in short — which started 

 from the Post-Office yard and ran to Hadley High- 

 stone in about an hour and three-quarters. They 

 would have done it in the old mail-coach time — an 

 hour and twenty-four minutes — but for the fact that 

 the easier road under the Archway was superseded 

 by the terrific pull up Highgate Hill, as mails had 

 to be exchanged at the post-office on the toi3 of it. 

 There was also a stop of four or five minutes for 

 local sortation near Brown's Wells. 



Otherwise the beautiful horses, a gray team and a 

 chestnut, w^ith w^hich the mail was equipped, were 

 equal to ten miles an hour. They excited admiration 

 all along the road, being compact little nags of about 

 fifteen hands high, the wheelers full of go, the leaders 

 of action, and both of good substance. It was a joy 

 to ride behind them. 



If this were a coaching-book pure and simple, 

 where it is customary to toss men's names about, as 



