ii6 THE COACHING AGE, 



cannot find a sufficient number of mercantile men 

 of spirit, who value their time, to give us increased 

 fares to meet the limited number of passengers - 

 and therefore the mails are very materially suffer- 

 ing, and also we are suffering a good deal of 

 injury from the early hour at which the mails 

 are required to be in London. That is very much 

 against us.' 



'The post-coaches from Bristol and Norwich, and 

 other places, that can stop an hour and a half longer 

 in the provinces, and are not obliged to arrive in 

 London till nine o'clock in the morning, offer a very 

 great accommodation ; whereas people do not like 

 the mail-coaches leaving earlier, and arriving before 

 the hotels and private houses are open to receive 

 them, and therefore I presume that to be one of 

 the leading objections. Leaving London at eight 

 at night operates excellently. The mails have all 

 the preference. Most persons have brought their 

 business to a close by eight o'clock ; the dinner- 

 hour is over, and a man, if he means to go, is ready 

 at eight. 



'The "Bath," which used to be the best mail in 

 England, and supported by the best sort of persons, 

 has become a very impoverished concern.' 



This Chaplin said in 1835, about twenty years 

 after the ' York House ' coach had been started, and 



