276 THE COACHING AGE. 



of progression being somewliere about fifty miles an 

 hour, as the Great Western will take you from 

 London to Bristol in about two hours and a half; the 

 South Western to Exeter in four hours, and the 

 London and North Western to Edinburgh or Glasgow 

 in nine or ten. 



In the year 1827, when the General Post Office 

 was in Lombard Street, any person on applying there 

 could, as a matter of right, be furnished with what 

 was in the phraseology of the period an express 

 for the conveyance, not of himself, but of a letter ; it 

 was said that they were very seldom resorted to, 

 but still there they were. The mode of forwarding 

 the letter was by a messenger on horseback ; the 

 Post-Office authorities considered the letter ought to 

 be conveyed at the rate of seven miles an hour ; the 

 charge was elevenpence a mile. These expresses did 

 not go nearly so fast as a mail, as the following time- 

 bill shows : 



