does not appear that the coaches were often openly attacked. At any rate
there do not seem to be many records of such incidents referring to the
later days of the mail-coach service.

An old guard, now retired, but still or quite recently living in
Carlisle, relates that only on one occasion did he require to draw his
arms for actual defence. This happened at a hamlet called Chance Inn, in
the county of Forfar, where the coach had stopped as usual. Both the
inside and outside places were occupied by passengers, and no additional
travellers could be taken. A number of sailors, however, who were
proceeding to join their ship at a seaport, wished to get upon the
coach; and though they were told that they could not travel by this
means, they plainly showed by their looks and demeanour that they were
determined to do so. One of them was overheard to say that, when the
proper moment arrived, they would make short work of the guard, who, as
it happened, was a youngish man. The passengers too were alarmed at the
appearances, and appealed to the guard to keep a sharp eye upon the
sailors. Under these conditions the guard directed the coachman, the
moment the word was given, to put the horses to a gallop, so as to leave
the seamen behind and avoid attack. The start was signalled as arranged,
the guard sprang into his place and faced round to the sailors, one of
whom was now in the act of preparing to throw a huge stone at his head
with both hands. Instantly the guard drew one of his pistols and covered
the ringleader, who thereupon dropped on his knees imploring pardon,
while his companions, previously so aggressive, scampered off in all
directions like a set of scared rabbits.

The apparatus by which in the present day bags of letters are dropped
from and taken up by the travelling post-office while the trains are
running at high speed had its prototype in the days of the mail-coaches.
In the one case as in the other the object was to get rid of stoppages,
and so to save time. In the coaching days the apparatus was of a most
primitive kind, consisting of a pointed stick rather less than four feet
long, whose sharpened end was put in behind the string around the neck
of the mail-bag, and on the end of the stick the bag was held up to be
clutched by the mail guard as the coach went hurriedly by. We are
indebted to the sub-postmaster of Liberton, a village a few miles out of
Edinburgh, for a description of the arrangement. He desc