THE COACHING AGE. 



for two men to drive up and down between London 

 and Newbury, while another drove down to Galne, 

 thirty-one miles, where the coachman, who had driven 

 up there from Bristol, returned with the down mail. 

 In the meantime the mails had passed near Hunger- 

 ford, another coachman, who had met the up-mail at 

 Calne, taking it on to Newbury, so that altogether 

 there were five coachmen employed, instead of four, 

 as on the stage-coaches. Another reason might have 

 been that the proprietors considered that driving sixty- 

 nine miles without any stoppage, and all night-work, 

 on such a fast mail as the Bristol was too hard 

 work, and that it was a better plan to have a break 

 at Calne. 



It further had this advantage, that the proprietor 

 who horsed the mail up and down between Newbury 

 and Calne appointed his own coachmen, so that his 

 horses were not driven by any persons but those in 

 his own service, and under his sole control. It also 

 happened that Mr. Waller, who was the proprietor on 

 this part of the road, had two sons, one or both of 

 whom always drove the mail, while a man named 

 Tom Mower, who married a daughter of Waller's, 

 drove from Calne downwards. That driving, although 

 with him it was all night-work, must have suited his 

 constitution, appears from the fact that he drove the 

 mail for twenty-fi.ve years, up to the time of its being 



