THE POST OFFICE. 255 



and the Brighton and Hastings — both pair-horse 

 mails. With all the above, their loading was com- 

 plete when the guards got their bags up in the General 

 Post-Office yard, and they were then turned away at 

 once ; but with the western mails, eleven in number, 

 the arrangements were different. The guards got off 

 as soon as they could pack all the bags into the carts 

 which conveyed them up to the West End, where the 

 mail-coaches had preceded them. 

 Those for Piccadilly were — 



Of these, all but the Portsmouth went through 

 Hounslow, where they diverged, some going on the 

 Staines Eoad, and others on the Bath — the Ports- 

 mouth going through Kingston and Guildford. 



The other two western mails were the Worcester 

 and the Birmingham, vid Banbury ; but they went 

 from the Gloucester Coffiee House, or Green Man and 

 Still in Oxford Street, where the carts carried up 

 their guards with the letter-bags. 



Having explained how all the mails were got away 

 out of London, I will now mention the plan of their 

 arrivals, timed, as I have said, so as to effect a general 

 post-office delivery throughout London early in the 

 morning. 



