456 THE COACHING AGE. 



would pull up as it passed, either before or after 

 the change, according to the locality ; and the guard 

 could help at the change as he could at all the little 

 roadside places, where they often changed, though not 

 in a town or perhaps even a village, as the changes 

 were arranged according to the places where con- 

 venient stabling could be procured, the length of 

 ground suited, or it met the convenience of the 

 persons finding the horses, and thus it would some- 

 times occur that a town was passed through by the 

 mail without changing in it — merely dropping and 

 picking up the mail-bags. 



At odd little places where you used to pull up for 

 the change, perhaps ten mail horses stood, being four 

 and a rest-horse for the down, and a similar number for 

 the up mail. Several stages of the mails were horsed in 

 this way by farmers, or small publichouse-keepers, or 

 horse-dealers, over parts of the ground where none of 

 the proprietors who had entered into and signed the 

 Post-Oflfice contract would provide the horses upon 

 the terms of sharing only in the mileage according to 

 the earnings ; and in those instances local men had to 

 be found to cover the ground at a fixed rate of pay- 

 ment, irrespective of the amount of the earnings. 



There was a great similarity among the villages 

 along the main roads, which may be seen still, where 

 there is not a railway sufficiently near to have intro- 



