COACHMEN. 3 IS 



parcels, and packages weighing nearly three tons, 

 without passengers, it wanted a good deal of horse- 

 power to get it through the country; and the coach- 

 man and guard, with fourteen or fifteen passengers 

 altogether, weighed close upon, if they did not 

 exceed, four tons ; the guard forming no inconsider- 

 able addition, if like the one on the Leeds ' Courier,' 

 who was said to weigh twenty stone. 



William Mills was the proprietor and driver 

 of a coach called the ' Eoyal Forester,' starting 

 from Monmouth early in the morning, running to 

 Gloucester, a distance of twenty-eight miles, through 

 Coleford and the Forest of Dean, stopping at the 

 King's Head, and returning in the afternoon. The 

 main road from Monmouth to Gloucester, and on 

 to London, did not run this way, but through Eoss, 

 and had this disadvantage, that when the floods 

 were out in the valley of the Wye, the road for a 

 considerable distance beyond Monmouth, where it 

 ran parallel to and very near the river, would be 

 under water to the depth of several feet ; and you 

 might see the London mail going along, with the 

 water up to the coach doors, although the mails were 

 then built much higher than at a later period. 



This road, however, was afterwards altered, and 

 carried from the town over higher ground farther 

 away from the river, so avoiding the floods alto- 



