i62 THE COACHING AGE. 



in what I may call a remote part of London. It 

 scarcely seems either polite, especially to a female, or 

 in order, being one of the largest among the London 

 proprietors, to have deferred all mention of her until 

 the last ; but all those I have given some account of 

 have been concerned in horsing the mails as well as 

 coaches, so having exhausted the list of those who 

 combined the two departments, I will now proceed 

 with the coach-proprietor solely. 



Ann Nelson, like Mrs. Mountain, was a widow, her 

 husband, John Nelson, having carried on business at 

 the Bull Inn, Aldgate, up to the time of his death, 

 when she continued it, with the assistance of her son 

 John, her son George being the coachman on her 

 Exeter night-coach, the ' Defiance,' and her other son, 

 Eobert, having the Belle Sauvage. Down in Aldgate, 

 at quite the East- end of London, most of her coaches, 

 naturally went on the eastern roads, as Norwich, Ips- 

 wich, Southend, and most of the places of any import- 

 ance in Essex and Suflfolk. Not that her business was 

 confined to that district, as she had the Exeter 

 * Telegraph ' day-coach, which started from her house 

 at half-past four in the morning, so that with the 

 getting up, dressing, and having your breakfast, it 

 was a good deal like rising in the middle of the 

 night, or as soon as you were in bed. If, as would 

 probably, I should imagine, be the case, you failed to 



