392 THE COACHING AGE. 



accompanied with a pretty strong caution as to its 

 recurrence. 



I should expect that exploits of this nature were 

 very rare indeed, there being too many chances of a 

 man being found out, in which case the conse- 

 quences were so serious that I imagine it was a case 

 of ' Le jeu ne vaut pas la chandelle.' 



Many were the commissions and little matters of 

 business which persons at a distance from London 

 found it convenient to get coachmen and guards 

 to execute for them, as also the conveyance of small 

 parcels containing money or valuable documents; 

 their transmission as ordinary parcels, but insured, 

 not being a plan generally adopted. Home said 

 they did not have one a week by the mails on an 

 average. 



Sometimes a guard would get five shillings or 

 more for a short paragraph respecting some im- 

 portant event which had just happened in London, 

 and which the newspaper editor in the country 

 wanted to insert in the next issue of his paper; 

 and for some legal documents called ' Answers in 

 Chancery,' which it was desirable to be able to trace 

 from one hand to another, they would receive as 

 much as a sovereign for carrying them. 



A guard arriving in London in the morning would 

 have until the afternoon, or perhaps the next day, 



