THE START. 



amounting only to about twenty years, from 1820 to 

 1840. Perhaps the year 1836, which witnessed the 

 publication of ' Pickwick,' wherein there is so rich a 

 picture of the old coaching days, was the culminating 

 point of the mail-coach system. Just as it was per- 

 fected, apparently, it was rendered useless ; the rail- 

 way guard supplanted the stage-coach guard, and 

 the driver of an engine took thtf place of that poten- 

 tate of coaching days, the driver of the mail- 

 coach. 



The speed of some of the principal mail-coaches at 

 their finest period was not less than ten miles an hour, 

 and this was in many cases, and in particular parts 

 of the country, exceeded. The punctuality of Mr. 

 Taylor's coach, 'The Wonder,' from Shrewsbury, was 

 so great that Lord William Lennox tells us that many 

 people at St. Albans regulated their 'watches by that 

 coach as it entered the towni This was turning the 

 tables upon Time, and regulating, him instead of being 

 regulated by him. 



Only once have we to record that 'The Wonder'- 

 was beaten. The author of 'Down the Eoad' tells 

 how the Hon. Thomas Kenyon was driven by en- 

 terprising postboys in trim blue jackets, ahead of ' The 

 Wonder ' all the way from Shrewsbury to London. 



' Dick,' said his honour, standing outside the Lion 

 at Shrewsbury, ' I wonder whether I could beat " The 



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