CHAPTEE XIII. 



THE POST OFFICE. 



The procession of mail-coaches was to be seen only 

 once a year; but tlie nearest approach to it was 

 the departure of the mails from the General Post 

 Office, St. Martin's le Grand, every night (except 

 Sunday) at eight o'clock. The coaches leaving 

 London nightly never exceeded twenty-eight, but 

 had gradually risen to that number as additional 

 mails had from time to time -been put on the various 

 roads, either at the suggestion of coach-proprietors 

 who thought a fresh one could be successfully worked, 

 or by the direction of the Postmaster-General, who 

 had found that the proposed road comprised places 

 insufficiently provided with postal accommodation, 

 or who might have been memorialized by the inhabi- 

 tants to put a mail-coach on the road. 



It haying been decided to start one, the course 

 then adopted was for a Post-Office official — either a ■ 

 superintendent and surveyor of mail-coaches or an 

 inspector — to go down the road, putting himself in 



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