GENERAL. 421 



On Tuesday and Friday nights the foreign mail^ 

 were conveyed to Dover by an extra mail-coacli, 

 "which left London about midnight, and returned 

 at odd times, as it had no letter-bag to bring back, 

 but picked up any chance passengers. Although 

 called a mail-coach, it was an ordinary stage-coach 

 provided by Home, who contracted for horsing it. 

 There was of course in those days a good deal of 

 smuggling at Dover, and one of these return mails 

 was cleverly and successfully made use of by the 

 smugglers in rather a smart way. A large cargo 

 of lace had been landed, but was lost sight of by the 

 revenue officers, who were on the look-out for 

 it everywhere. As a blind to them, a post-chaise with 

 four horses was driven from Dover at a great pace, 

 with a number of packages inside. It was closely 

 pursued by the officers in another chaise, and the 

 chase was kept up till they got to Dartford, when 

 it was overtaken, but nothing contraband was found 

 in it. As soon as the supposed smugglers' chaise had 

 left, the old foreign mail-coach started on its return 

 to London, picked up all the smuggled goods at 

 a roadside inn, and came leisurely up to London un- 

 suspected, dropping the parcels of lace at the Brick- 

 layer's Arms, in the Old Kent Eoad. 



An old resident in a village on the Dover road 

 many years back says : ' I saw an immense deal 



