4i6 THE. COACHING AGE. 



Claims for losses of parcels were frequent, as 

 things would sometimes slip off a coach, through a 

 strap or cord giving way, thus, especially at night, 

 dropping on the road unnoticed. The liability, how^- 

 ever, of common carriers was restricted to a certain 

 sum by Act of Parliament, except where the owner 

 of the parcel protected himself by special insurance. 

 This, however, was very seldom done, parcels of great 

 value being frequently delivered into the personal 

 charge of either the coachman or guard, to whom 

 a gratuity was given for his trouble, and if the 

 package was small he would probably carry it in 

 one of his pockets for greater security. 



Such things have occurred as four persons, having 

 ascertained that a parcel of great value was going to 

 be forwarded at a certain time, engaging the whole of 

 the inside of the coach, and in the course of the 

 journey managing to effect a communication from the 

 inside with the boot, abstracting the parcel, and 

 leaving the coach before the loss was discovered ; and 

 I believe it was in this way that a parcel containing a 

 large sum of money, which was being transmitted by 

 the ' Greyhound ' night-coach for payment of some 

 wages, was stolen out of the front-boot, and never 

 recovered. A similar robbery was effected from the 

 front-boot of one of the Oxford day-coaches before it 

 left Piccadilly, but not by the same means. 



