262 THE COACHING AGE. 



extensive London coach-proprietor, it was cheaper to 

 send a letter by the post than forwarded as a small 

 parcel by coach. The charge for a parcel to 

 Brighton, for instance, was a shilling, and no parcel 

 by coach was charged less than that sum, while by 

 post the charge for a letter was only eightpence ; 

 but by coach the parcel would cost one shilling and 

 fourpence, including delivery, making a difference of 

 exactly one-half the expense in the two modes of 

 conveyance. In longer distances the coaches had no 

 chance of carrying parcels containing letters, the 

 difference being even greater. As no parcel from 

 London to Manchester or Liverpool would be less than 

 two shillings by the coach, the only instances in 

 which small parcels, perhaps containing a letter only, 

 were likely to be sent by the coaches would be when 

 time was an object, the mails leaving London only 

 once in every twenty -four hours ; so in the event 

 of its being important to send a letter immediately, 

 it might be done by means of one of the day- 

 coaches. But this would only be applicable to parcels 

 going distances not exceeding sixty or seventy miles, 

 to places for which day-coaches started after ten 

 or eleven o'clock in the morning. All day-coaches 

 going a hundred miles would leave London at seven 

 or eight o'clock in the morning, before the day's 

 business had commenced or the letters arriving in 



