EXPRESSES PAST AND PRESENT. 279 



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making greater speed, tlie Postmaster-General had 



stipulated that no stage should exceed ten miles. 



Lord Campbell thus relates his experience of a 

 journey by this mail some years previously : 



' A journey to London was in those days (in 

 the year 1798,) considered a very formidable under- 

 taking. I was to perform it by the mail-coach, which 

 had been recently established (the first mail to 

 Edinburgh was started in 1784), and was supposed to 

 travel with marvellous velocity, taking only three 

 nights and two days for the whole distance from 

 Edinburgh to London. 



' But this speed was thought to be highly dangerous 

 to the head, independently of all the perils of an 

 overturn, and stories were told of men and women, 

 who, having reached London with such celerity, died 

 suddenly of an affection of the brain. My family 

 and friends were seriously alarmed for me, and 

 advised me at all events to stay a day at York 

 to recruit myself.' 



The fares, he mentions, were £10 from Edinburgh 

 to London ; to York, £4 15 s. ; and from York to 

 London, £5 5s, 



His further experience in travelling at a somewhat 

 later period, namely in the year 1802, he thus 

 relates : 



'Left the White Bear, Piccadilly, at four in the 



