CHAPTER IV. 



PROCESSION OF THE MAILS. 



A GOOD deal has been written from time to time 

 about the procession of mail-coaches running out of 

 London, which used to take place annxially on the 

 birthday of the reigning sovereign. 



It assembled in Lincoln's Inn Fields, where such a 

 display would, in those days, create a considerable 

 sensation. These were not the meets of a four-in- 

 hand coaching club such as we have now, and 

 although they were in some respects similar, the 

 procession of the mails was not such a fashionable 

 sight. There was, moreover, less occasion for 

 crowding together either of carriages or spectators 

 on foot ; from the circumstance of the procession 

 passing through some of the squares and principal 

 thoroughfares at the West End, the residents of 

 houses on the route could see the whole display from 

 the balconies or windows of their own houses. 



A printed official programme for the order of the 

 procession was issued, by the Earl of Lichfield for the 



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