COACH PROPRIETORS. 125 



partners in each, mail an annual sum of thirteen 

 pounds. 



Chaplin's establishment at the Spread Eagle, in 

 Gracechurch Street, was not so extensive, nor did so 

 many of his best coaches start from there as from the 

 Swan with two Necks. Most of his fast coaches into 

 Kent and Surrey started from Gracechurch Street, 

 whence they had greater facilities for getting out 

 of London than at Lad Lane. Though Chaplin had 

 not any of the coaches running the extreme distances 

 in a day, such as to Shrewsbury and Manchester, or 

 the two longest mails, such as the Edinburgh and 

 Glasgow, yet he had the three fastest maUs, the 

 Bristol, Devonport, and Holyhead. 



With regard to the pace of coaches generally, he 

 said that many professed to perform ten miles an 

 hour by day, nine miles an hour by night ; but they 

 were variable, and very rarely performed on an average 

 more than nine miles and a half an hour by day, and 

 eight and a half by night. 



' There are a few, however,' he continued, ' which 

 fully maintain ten miles an hour — the Brighton, the 

 Exeter day-coach, and the Shrewsbury day-coach. 

 Among the best I have are the Estafette to Man- 

 Chester, leaving London at ten in the morning, nine 

 miles and a half an hour ; the Birmingham " Tantivy," 

 by Oxford ; the Bristol day-coach, etc. 



