Horses. 53 



16 cwt. They were contained in sacks seven feet long, 

 which were laid in three tiers across the top, so high 

 that no guard, unless he were a Chang in stature, 

 could look over them, and the waist {i.e., the seat 

 behind the coachman) and the hind-boot were filled 

 with bags as well. 



The best teams went out of Carlisle, where eighty 

 horses were once kept for eight mails and seven 

 coaches. The Carlisle teams always looked well, as 

 the contractors principally lived there in the midst of 

 their own ground, and hence the coachmen tried if 

 possible to make up their time before they got to it. 

 " The little mail," as it was called, was on for a short 

 time. It had only two horses, and they always 

 seemed to be running away with their load. Its 

 owners professed to do the 96 miles between Carlisle 

 and Glasgow in 8h. 32jm., and it pretty often came 

 to time ; but there were so many accidents, that pas- 

 sengers wholly shunned it at last. It was established 

 to let the Glasgow people — who were jealous on the 

 point, and thought that their London correspondence 

 was delayed by coming through Yorkshire — have their 

 letters an hour or so earlier from Carlisle than by the 

 regular mail. The route of the London and Edin- 

 burgh mail was by Derby and Manchester, and it and 

 the old Glasgow mail so arranged their time, with a 

 view to the Glasgow mal-contents, as to meet in the 

 Crown Inn Square, at Penrith, at four o'clock in the 

 morning, and come on to Carlisle together. Up mails, 

 which left Carlisle at six in the evening, reached 

 London at five o'clock on the second morning. The 

 fare was 61. 6s. inside, and 3/. 5^. out ; but fees to 

 coachmen and guards, with refreshment on the road, 

 brought it up considerably. Well may those who are 

 rightly informed about things as they were, not 

 grumble at things as they are, when — instead of being 

 cramped and sleepless for nearly thirty-six hours, with 

 every hair standing up like a porcupine's quill, and 



