128 THE COACHING AGE. 



house he put up outside it a stone head of a man, 

 with a bull in his expanded mouth, which may be 

 seen to this day. A painting of it was on the panels 

 of the doors of his coaches, and sometimes on the 

 door of the hind boot as well. 



Being immediately opposite the entrance to the 

 General Post Office yard, and at the end of Aldersgate 

 Street, the situation of the Bull and. Mouth was most 

 favourable for traffic on the northern roads, to which 

 Sherman principally directed his attention, increasing 

 the number of his coaches to Birmingham from five, 

 which he found running when he took the Bull and 

 Mouth, to nine, the number he had on when the 

 Birmingham Railway opened to Denbigh Hall ; two 

 or three were then immediately taken oiF, but he and 

 his partners endeavoured to keep the others going 

 till their profits were so diminished that the pro- 

 prietors could not continue. 



Sherman was the originator of the long-distance day- 

 coaches, having begun with the ' Wonder ' to Shrews- 

 bury, 158 miles; the longest distances performed by 

 day-coaches having previously been between 100 and 

 125 miles, from London to Bristol. This was subse- 

 quently followed by the Exeter ' Telegraph' day-coach, 

 in which he had a share, the distance of this coach's 

 running being 165 miles. In order, however, to eclipse 

 anythingthathad ever been done before in the coaching 



