252 THE COACHING AGE. 



two or three days later, so that the Sunday would 

 have intervened, and B.'s reply reached London on 

 the Sunday morning, the letter would have remained 

 at the General Post Office till eight o'clock on Mon- 

 day night, a period of thirty-six hours ; this shows 

 how the increase of correspondence out of London 

 occurred on Monday nights. 



A great deal of consideration was given at the 

 Post Office as to the means of sending correspondence 

 by the day-coaches out of London ; but it did not 

 appear that there would be much benefit derived 

 from the plan, except to places not more than fifty or 

 sixty miles distant from London, when a letter posted 

 at ten in the morning might be delivered the same 

 evening in time to post a reply, which would reach 

 London the next morning. There was an objection to 

 making use of the coaches as mails, independently of 

 the additional expense which would have been 

 incurred for a few letters only, as a guard would have 

 to be carried together with the bags, and the coach- 

 proprietors paid for the accommodation thus afforded. 



It was probably experimentally that the Brighton 

 and Dover day-mails were started, arriving at the 

 General Post Office between four and five, so that 

 letters received at those places early in the morning, 

 if answered immediately, would be delivered in London 

 the same evening. 



