tuation was one well suited for a robbery. And it was here that he
afterwards carried the suggestion then made into effect.

When such robberies took place the post-boys sometimes came off without
serious mishap, but at other times they were badly injured. On Wednesday
the 23d October 1816, a post-boy near Exeter was assaulted (as the
report says) in "a most desperate and inhuman manner," when his skull
was fractured, and he shortly afterwards died.

The post-boys were exposed to all the inclemency of the weather both by
day and night. Sometimes they were overtaken by snow-storms, when they
would have to struggle on for their lives. Sometimes, after riding a
stage in severe frost, they would have to be lifted from their saddles
benumbed with cold and unable to dismount. At other times accidents of a
different kind happened to them, and, as has been shown, they sometimes
lost their lives.

Mail-coaches were first put upon the road on the 8th of August 1784. The
term of about sixty years, during which they were the means of conveying
the principal mails throughout the country, must ever seem to us a
period of romantic interest. There is something stirring even in the
picture of a mail-coach bounding along at the heels of four well-bred
horses; and we know by experience how exhilarating it is to be carried
along the highway at a rapid rate in a well-appointed coach.

[Illustration: THE MAIL, 1803. (_From a contemporary print._)]

We cannot well separate the service given to the Post Office by
mail-coaches from the passengers who made use of that means of
conveyance, and we may linger a little to endeavour to realise what a
journey was like from accounts left us by travellers. The charm of day
travelling could no doubt be conjured up even now by any one who would
take time to reflect upon the subject. But other phases of the matter
could hardly be so dealt with.

De Quincey, in his _Confessions of an English Opium Eater_, gives a
pleasing description of the easy motion and soothing influence of a
well-equipped mail-coach running upon an even and kindly road. The
period he refers to was about 1803, and the coach was that carrying the
Bristol mail--which enjoyed unusual advantages owing to the superior
character of the road, and an extra allowance for expenses subscribed by
the Bristol merchants. He thus describes his feelings: "It was past
eight o'clock when I reached the Gloucester Coffee-House, and, the
Bristol mail