248 THE COACHING AGE. 



trouble ; the passengers had to be told they must take 

 off their heavy things, and must be contented to go 

 with something less. And when a gentleman's lug- 

 gage was taken off, * many severe observations,'' as 

 I have before stated, were made ; and the proprietors 

 being allowed to carry an additional passenger would 

 no doubt have added very much both to the number 

 and" strength of the severe observations. It would 

 also have been necessary to alter the roof-seat of the 

 mail, so as to make room for another person. 



As the mails filed off out of the Post- Office yard 

 at night, judging from the height of the load on 

 the roof it certainly did not seem that any addition 

 could with safety be made to it. 



How different a state of things is this from that 

 mentioned by Sir Walter Scott, who said a friend of 

 his remembered the letter-bag arriving in Edinburgh 

 during the year 1745 with but one letter in it, and 

 about the same time the same mail arrived in London 

 with but one letter. The mode of conveying the 

 letters at that time must have been by horse-post, as 

 the first mail-coach from London to Bristol was not 

 started until 1784. 



As the mails became established on the principal 

 main roads out of London, and from a variety of other 

 circumstances, correspondence and newspapers very 

 much increased ; and thus in nearly a century after 



