iffiths, who was born at
Westminster, in the year 1811, and entered the service of the Post
Office as a Mail Guard on the 17th November, 1834. At the commencement
of his service he was employed as Guard to the London and Norwich, _via_
Newmarket Mail Coach, upon which duty he remained until the coach ceased
running on the 5th January, 1846, when he was transferred to the London
and Dover Railway, and acted as Mail Train Guard thereon. When a
Travelling Post Office was established in 1860 on the Dover line of
railway, and the necessity for a Guard to the Mail bags thus removed,
Griffiths was ordered to the South Wales Railway, where he remained as
Mail Train Guard until superannuated on the 25th August, 1870. He lived
at Eastville, in Bristol, under the care at last of Mrs. Barrett, a
kind old dame, who made him very comfortable, and on his demise, after
being on pension for 34 years, he bequeathed his old battered Mail Coach
horn to her (_see illustration_). It is probable that the horn was used
on the last Norwich Coach out of London. The maker's name on it is "J.A.
Turner, 19 Poultry."

On November 9, 1822, attention was drawn to the "Musical Coachman"
thus:--"The blowing of the horn by the coachman and guards of our
mail-coaches has usually been considered a sort of nuisance: now, by the
persevering labours of these ingenious gentlemen, converted into an
instrument of public gratification. Most of the guards of the
stage-coaches now make their entrance and exit to the tune of some old
national ballad, which, though it may not, perhaps, be played at present
in such exact time and tune as would satisfy the leader of the opera
band, is yet pleasant in comparison to the unmeaning and discordant
strains which formerly issued from the same quarter."

[Illustration: AN OLD MAIL COACH GUARD'S POST HORN.]

April, 1832:--"The Tipsy Member" finds mention thus: "An M.P. applied
to the Post Office to know why some of his franks had been charged; The
answer was, 'We supposed, sir, they were not your writing; the 'hand' is
not 'the same.' 'Why, not precisely; but the truth is I happened to be a
_little tipsy_ when I wrote them.' 'Then, sir, you will be so good in
future as to write 'drunk' when you make 'free.'"

In this book are depicted an old State Coach, the Mail Coach, the
primitive Railway Train, and a Railway Engine of the latest pattern, all
indicative of progress in locomotion. To complete the series, and for
the purpo