COACH PROPRIETORS. iii 



near Basingstoke, one Sunday, when the clergyman 

 took his text from the Proverbs of Solomon, and 

 Mr. Chaplin afterwards remarked to him : ' That 

 Solomon was a clever fellow. I should not like 

 to have bought a horse from him without a written 

 warrant.' 



In 1835 his principal establishment was at the 

 Swan with Two Necks, and he had about twelve 

 hundred horses at work. Out of the twenty-seven 

 mail-coaches leaving London nightly, he horsed no 

 less than fourteen. They were : 



Holyhead. 



Devonport. 



Liverpool. 



Manchester. 



Bristol. 



Halifax. 



Portsmouth. 



Norwich. 



Hull. 



Bath. 



Dover. 



Poole and Southampton. 



Stroud. 



Lynn and Wells. 



Some of these he horsed jointly with other pro- 

 prietors. Altogether he horsed those mails for a 

 distance of nearly 350 miles, which fully entitled 

 him to say in his address to the shareholders of the 

 South-Western Eailway Company that he had had 

 experience in the transmission of her Majesty's 

 maUs. 



In those instances where he did not actually pro- 

 vide the horses, although he had signed the contract 



