nteresting. Guard James Burdett fared little
better than his comrade on the Devonport mail:

"An accident occurred to the Worcester mail Coach on Friday evening,
March 27, 1829, opposite the Bull and Mouth Office, in Piccadilly,
which, we are sorry to say, has proved fatal to Turner, the coachman.
Just as Turner had taken hold of the reins, and while he was wrapping a
large coat over his knees, the leaders started, and, turning sharply to
the right, dashed one of the fore-wheels against a post. The shock was
so violent that the coachman was flung from his seat. He fell on his
back, and his neck came violently against the curb-stone. Not a moment
was lost in securing the assistance of a surgeon, by whom he was bled.
The poor man was shortly removed to St. George's Hospital, where he died
at about eight o'clock on Saturday evening. He left a wife and three
infant children in a state of destitution, without even the means of
buying a coffin."

As a "Caution to Mail Coachmen," the following notice was issued on June
20, 1829:--"On Friday, Thomas Moor, the driver of the London mail from
Bristol to Calne and back, appeared before the Magistrates at
Brislington to answer an information laid against him by Mr. Bull, the
Inspector of Mail Coaches, by order of the G.P.O. for giving up the
reins to an outside passenger, and permitting him to drive the mail, on
May 29 last, from Keynsham to Bath, against the remonstrances of the
guard. The magistrates convicted Moor in the mitigated penalty of L5 and
11s. costs. Mr. Bull presented the Bath Hospital with the amount of the
fine."

On September 8th, 1837, a coachman named Burnett was killed at
Speenhamland, on the Bath Road. He was driving one of the New Company's
London and Bristol stages, and alighted at the "Hare and Hounds," very
foolishly leaving the horses unattended, with reins on their backs. He
had been a coachman for 20 years, but experience had not been sufficient
to prevent him thus breaking one of the first rules of the profession.
He had no sooner entered the Inn than the rival Old Company's coach came
down the road. Whether the other coachman gave the horses a touch with
his whip as he passed, or if they started of their own accord, is not
known, but they did start, and Burnett, rushing out to stop them, was
thrown down and trampled on, so that he died.

There departed this life at Bristol, in November, 1904, a somewhat
notable individual in the person of Richard Gr