246 THE COACHING AGE. 



Mr. Akers evidently did not ascribe the proprietors' 

 objection to sign a contract to its appearance, as when 

 asked bow be accounted for tbe increased difficulty of 

 obtaining contractors in later years, be said : 



' I tbink tbe competition is greater, from tbe number 

 of persons wbo are working different coacbes, and 

 tbat therefore they do not find it worth their while. 

 For instance, many of the middle proprietors are 

 drivers who cannot conveniently belong to a mail- 

 coach, as there are strong objections to them. If a 

 man works one side of the coach, if he finds five 

 horses, that gives him a situation. A number of 

 those little proprietors cover a great scope of country, 

 and I know Mr. Chaplin of Lad Lane has many of ' 

 those subworkers who are driving the post-coaches, 

 and they are getting into that wath the mails where 

 they can ; but the office is not fond of it — it is an 

 incorrect way.' 



Mr. Akers sometimes found the proprietors as 

 troublesome to manage as getting an unwilling horse 

 up to the pole. ' Even when we go down to get the 

 contract executed by those persons, the thing having 

 been pretty well understood by many of them before, 

 when we come to the point they hesitate and evade 

 it.' In fact, like many of the horses which they 

 worked in their coaches, they jibbed. 



They say : ' This mail-coach can only carry four 



