COACH PROPRIETORS. 175 



place would have left London before the letters were 

 delivered in the morning, it would be necessary to wait 

 for a night coach or mail going down, which would 

 not arrive at Bristol till all the up day-coaches had 

 left, thus obliging you to wait there for an up night- 

 coach before you could get up the road again. 



I fancy that this inability to frequently inspect his 

 stock and business all up and down the road subjected 

 Cooper to a great deal of loss, notwithstanding that 

 he was a very active man and seemed always to be 

 about. 



He had not any coaching inn of his own in London, 

 but his coaches started from the White Bear, in 

 Basinghall Street, long since entirely abolished. I 

 am not aware that any other coaches ran from the 

 same place. They subsequently started from the 

 George Inn, Aldermanbury. 



In like manner, at the Bristol end. Cooper did not 

 run to one of the coaching inns, but his booking-office 

 was at No. 6 in the High Street, exactly opposite 

 the Eummer Hotel, from which the ' New Company ' 

 ran. I suppose it was when the New Company was 

 started that Cooper, to distinguish his, called it the 

 ' Old Company,' the name by which it was always 

 known, or else ' Cooper's Coach ' — there was not any 

 proprietor's name on it but his. 



The system of passengers giving no fees to the 



