92 THE COACHING AGE. 



considerable rake or slope should be given to the 

 backs of the seats, and the stuffing should be so 

 arranged as to support the lumbar vertebrae, which are 

 always those which suffer most on a journey. Much 

 also may be done to give relief to the traveller 

 by improving the hand-straps : long pendulous 

 straps with their loops adjustable to diflferent heights 

 would give great relief by affording a rest for the 

 elbow of an arm passed through them.' 



The defects above pointed out sufficiently indicate 

 that the journey of an inside passenger from Edin- 

 burgh to London, occupying a period of forty-five 

 hours and thirty-nine minutes, must have been 

 attended with a great amount of physical discomfort, 

 doubtless causing great mental irritability and dis-^ 

 quietude. Unions with their ' outdoor relief ' and 

 ' indoor relief ' did not exist in those days, although 

 they were just coming into use ; but I should think 

 that through passengers for a long journey inside 

 a mail must have stood much more in need of 

 some indoor relief than many of the inmates of 

 unions. 



Clearly the time had arrived when the construction 

 of the mails was about to undergo alterations in 

 which improvements for the inside were not to be 

 lost sight of. Indeed, a large coach-builder in 

 London admitted that the convenience of travellers 



