THE ROYAL MAILS (_continued_).
By the beginning of the new century the mail coach system appears to
have begun to settle into its place pretty well. Mr. Vidler had the
contract for the coaches, which he continued to hold for at least a
quarter of a century, and appears to have brought much spirit to bear
upon the work.
In the year 1820 he was evidently engaged in making experiments with
the view of making the coaches run lighter after the horses, and also
to test their stability. He writes to Mr. Johnson, the Superintendent
of mail coaches, May 15, saying, "As below, I send you the particulars
of an experiment made this morning with a mail coach with the five
hundredweight in the three different positions," and he accompanied
this letter with cards, of which I give an exact copy.
POST COACH. MAIL.
77 lbs. to remove with 5 cwt. on | 70 lbs. to remove with 5
front wheels. | cwt. on front wheels.
|
74 lbs. to remove with 5 cwt. on | 65 lbs. to remove with 5
hind wheels. | cwt. on hind wheels.
|
68 lbs. to remove with 5 cwt. in | 61 lbs. to remove with 5
centre of the coach. | cwt. in centre of coach.
MAIL. BALLOON.
56 lbs. suspended over a pulley | It required 60 lbs. to move
moved the mail on a horizontal | the Balloon.
plane. |
|
Weight 18 cwt. 20 lbs. | Weight 18 cwt. 1 qr. 19 lbs.
|
Fore wheels 3 feet 8 inches. | Fore wheels 3 feet 6 inches.
|
Hind wheels 4 feet 6 inches. | Hind wheels 4 feet 10 inches.
|
The fore wheel raised on a block, | The fore wheel of the Balloon
stood at 26 inches without | would only stand at 17.
upsetting. |
| The hind at 16-1/2.
DOUBLE-BODIED COACH WITH FORE AND HIND BOOT.
Weight 14 cwt.
Fore wheels 3 feet 8 inches.
Hind wheels 4 feet 6 inches.
28 lbs. suspended over a pulley moved this coach on a horizontal
plane.
The fore and hind wheels raised on blocks at 31 inches did not
upset the coach.
It required only 35 lbs. to move this coach with 5 cwt. in front
boot.
32 lbs. to move it with 5 cwt. in the hind boot.
33-1/4 lbs. to move it with 5 cwt. in the centre of the body.
I confess I am not expert enough to quite understand all this, but I
have been induced to place it before the reader, as it occupies little
space, and may be of interest to those who have a practical
acquaintance with mechanics. I am equally at a loss to say what sort
of conveyance the Balloon or the Double-bodied Coach were.
The Postmaster-General, and those under him, appear to have always
been ready to listen to any proposals or suggestions made to them for
the improvement of coaches, even if, as in the case below, they were
not very promising.
In the year 1811, the Rev. Mr. Milton tried to persuade the
Postmaster-General to adopt a system of broad wheels to save the
roads, and got it adopted by a Reading coach; but, as might be
expected, it was found to add immensely to the draught, and is
described as being the only coach which distressed the horses. The
rev. gentleman must have been a commissioner of some turnpike trust,
and had imbibed such a predilection for broad wheels for the sake of
the roads, that he resembled the tanner, who affirmed that "there was
nothing like leather."
Even without the wheels being broad, the difference between square
tires and round tires is enormous. This was brought to my notice very
strongly one summer when the round tires which were worn out were
replaced by square ones. The difference to the horses in the draught
was considerable, but it was most striking when going down hill, where
the change made the difference of a notch or two in the brake.
But, without having broad wheels, coaches were by far the best
customers the roads had. They paid large sums of money, and really
benefited the roads, rather than injured them. A road is more easily
kept in repair when it has a variety of traffic over it. When, as is
commonly the case now, it is nearly all single horse work, the wheels
and the horses always keep to the same tracks, and the new metal
requires constant raking to prevent the road getting into ruts;
whereas, with a variety in the traffic, the stone settles with little
trouble.
Probably little or no alteration took place in the build of the mail
coaches during Mr. Vidler's contract, but at the expiration of it the
telegraph spring, the same as was at work under the other coaches, was
substituted for what was termed the mail coach spring, which had
hitherto been in use as the hind spring. This alteration had the
desirable effect of shortening the perch, which was favourable to
draught, and, at the same time, it let down the body, which was of a
square build, lower down between the springs, which added to the
stability. The same axles and wheels were continued, only that the
tires, instead of being put on in "stocks," were like those on other
coach wheels fastened on in one circle.
As late, however, as the year 1839, the post-office authorities did
not appear to be quite satisfied, as an enquiry was instituted; but I
cannot find that any change of much value was suggested, and certainly
none was the outcome of the enquiry. A Mr. J. M'Neil, in his evidence,
said that there was no reason why, if the front part of the carriage
was upon telegraph springs, the hind part should not be upon C
springs. This, no doubt, would check the swing attendant upon the C
spring, but might give a rather rude shock to the telegraph spring in
doing so.
Four years later I find that the sum of thirty shillings was allowed
for "drawing the pattern of a coach." The plan, however, was not
forthcoming.
The following statement shows how large the business of the mail coach
department had become by the year 1834, just half a century after its
establishment. In England alone the number of miles travelled daily by
mail coaches was 16,262. The amount of expense for forwarding the
mails was £56,334; amount of mail guards' wages £6,743; the number of
them employed was 247; the number of roads on which the coachman acted
as guard was 34; the number of roads on which the patent coaches were
used was 63, and on which not used was 51. The patent coaches,
therefore, seem to have been brought into use slowly.
MILEAGE WARRANTS (October, 1834).
3 at 1d.
1 at 1-1/4d.
34 at 1-1/2d.
42 at 2d.
4 at 3d.
1 at 3-1/2d.
1 at 4d.
3 paid yearly sums.
1 received no pay.
Perhaps I shall find no better place than this for introducing the
reader more intimately to the mail guards. It will be seen that their
numbers were very considerable, and as they had exceedingly onerous
and responsible duties to perform (and that sometimes at the risk of
their lives), and were the servants of the post-office, it would
naturally have been expected that they should have been well paid. All
that they received, however, from the post-office was ten shillings
and sixpence a week and one suit of clothes, in addition to which they
were entitled to a superannuation allowance of seven shillings a week,
and frequently received assistance in illness. For the rest they had
to trust to the tips given to them by the passengers, and I think it
speaks well for the liberality of the travelling public that they were
satisfied with their places; for having post-office duty to perform in
every town they passed through, they could have had little opportunity
to confer any benefits upon them.
On the subject of fees, too, their employers blew hot and cold. At one
time, as has been observed, they made them an allowance for the loss
of "vails"; and at another, as will be seen by the accompanying
letter, the practice was condemned. A complaint had been received from
a passenger respecting fees to coachmen and guards; but the letter
will speak for itself.
"I have the honour of your letter, to which I beg leave to observe
that neither coachman nor guard should claim anything of 'vails' as a
right, having ten and sixpence per week each; but the custom too much
prevailed of giving generally each a shilling at the end of the
ground, but as a courtesy, not a right; and it is the absolute order
of the office that they shall not use a word beyond solicitation. This
is particularly strong to the guard, for, indeed, over the coachman we
have not much power; but if he drives less than thirty miles, as your
first did, they should think themselves well content with sixpence
from each passenger." It goes on to say that the guard was suspended
for his conduct.
I don't know how far coachmen were contented with sixpence in those
days; but I know that so small a sum, if offered, would have given
little satisfaction in later years, if not returned with thanks.
It will still be in the recollection of a good many that in the early
days of railways the mail bags were only forwarded by a certain number
of trains, which were called mail trains, and were in charge of a
post-office guard. They may also call to mind that there used to be
attached to those trains some carriages a good deal resembling the old
mail coaches, and constructed to carry only four passengers in each
compartment. So difficult is it to break altogether with old
associations.
The guards were then placed on what was termed the treasury list, and
their salary was raised to seventy pounds a year and upwards.
Before I pass on from the subject of the guards, I should like to put
once again before the reader the onerous and, indeed, dangerous nature
of their duties, and the admirable and faithful way in which they
performed them. Among other reports of the same nature I have selected
the following, which occurred in November, 1836:--
"The guard, Rands, a very old servant, on the Ludlow and Worcester
line, states the coach and passengers were left at a place called
Newnham, in consequence of the water being too deep for the coach to
travel. I took the mail on horseback until I could procure a post
chaise to convey the bags to meet the mail for London. This lost one
hour and fourteen minutes, but only forty-five minutes' delay on the
arrival in London."
Out of their very moderate pay, those of them working out of London,
and in Ireland, were called upon to pay the sum of six shillings and
sixpence quarterly to the armourer for cleaning arms, but in the
country they looked after their own. How far these were kept in
serviceable order I have no means of knowing, but judging from a very
strange and melancholy accident which occurred in Ireland, those in
charge of the armourers appear to have been kept in very fit condition
for use, indeed, if not rather too much so. The report says, "As the
Sligo mail was preparing to start from Ballina, the guard, Samuel
Middleton, was in the act of closing the lid of his arm chest, when,
unfortunately, a blunderbuss exploded, one of the balls from which
entered the side of a poor countryman, name Terence M'Donagh, and
caused his instant death." If this had occurred now, I suppose, by
some reasoning peculiarly Hibernian, this accident would have been
laid at Mr. Balfour's door.
As has been shown by the mileage warrant the remuneration paid to the
coach proprietors for horsing the mails was, with the exception of two
or three cases, always very small. How they contrived to make any
profit out of it, with at first only four passengers, is to me a
mystery. I can only suppose that the fares charged to the passengers
were very high. As the roads improved, and the conveyances were made
more comfortable and commodious, three outside passengers were allowed
to be carried, and the pace being accelerated, no doubt many of the
mails had a pretty good time of it till the roads were sufficiently
improved for the fast day coaches to commence running. Up to this time
the only competition they experienced was that of the slow and heavy
night coaches, and all the "_élite_" who did not object to pay
well for the improved accommodation, travelled by the mails, which
were performing their journeys at a good speed considering the then
condition of the roads.
In the year 1811, according to a table in the edition of "Patterson's
Roads," published in that year, the mail from London to Chester and
Holyhead, which started from the General Post-Office at eight o'clock
on Monday evening, arrived at Chester at twenty-five minutes past
twelve on the morning of the following Wednesday, thus taking about
twenty-eight hours and a half to perform a journey of one hundred and
eighty miles. The "Bristol" occupied fifteen hours and three-quarters
on her journey of one hundred and twenty miles, whilst that to
Shrewsbury, which at that time ran by Uxbridge and Oxford, consumed
twenty-three hours in accomplishing the distance of one hundred and
sixty-two miles, and, as Nimrod remarked in his article on the Road,
"Perhaps, an hour after her time by Shrewsbury clock." This shows a
speed of nearly eight miles an hour, which, if kept, was very
creditable work; but upon this we see that Nimrod casts a doubt, and
he adds "The betting were not ten to one that she had not been
overturned on the road."
By the year 1825, some considerable acceleration had taken place. The
Shrewsbury mail, which had then become the more important Holyhead
mail, performed the journey to Shrewsbury in twenty hours and a half,
and was again accelerated in the following year, but to how great an
extent I have no knowledge. I only know that a few years later the
time allowed was reduced to sixteen hours and a quarter, and she was
due at Holyhead about the same time as, a few years previously, she
had reached Shrewsbury, or twenty-eight hours from London; and thus,
owing in a great degree to the admirable efficiency of Mr. Telford's
road-making, surpassing by six hours the opinion expressed by him in
the year 1830, that the mail ought to go to Holyhead in thirty-four
hours. The remuneration paid to the horse contractors was, with very
few exceptions, always very small, as the table already introduced
shows.
Notwithstanding all the improvements in the mails, however, when the
fast day coaches became their rivals, they more and more lost their
good customers and then began the complaints about the small amount
paid by the post-office. So much, indeed, did this competition tell,
that when the Shrewsbury mail became the Holyhead, and changed its
route from the Oxford road to that through Coventry, the contractors
would accept no less than a shilling a mile, fearing the opposition
they would have to meet by those who had lost the mail on the other
road. It was, however, largely reduced afterwards, but to what extent
I have not ascertained; and again, upon an acceleration in 1826, it
was increased to fourpence, with the proviso that if it shared less
than four pounds a mile per month during the ensuing year, the price
should be raised to fivepence.
The Chester mail also obtained a rise to sixpence at the same time, as
it did not earn four pounds a mile; doubtless in consequence of its
having ceased to carry the Holyhead traffic.
The dissatisfaction of the contractors, appears to have continued,
and, indeed, became more intense as the coaches improved and
multiplied, till at last a committee of the House of Commons was
appointed to investigate the circumstances, which, however, I should
have thought were not very far to seek; but at any rate, it elicited
some good, sound, common sense from Mr. Johnson, the superintendent of
mail coaches.
He was of opinion that anything under fivepence a mile was too little,
and that mail coaches which received less than that were decidedly
underpaid. Still the competition was so great that persons were
generally found to undertake the contract for less; but he did not
desire to bring forward persons to take it at less than threepence a
mile, as it would be injurious to them if they excited that sort of
opposition. He considered that a dividend of four pounds a mile a
month was sufficient to cover loss, but with scarcely sufficient
profit. Indeed, fast coaches ought to share five, and I can quite bear
him out in this.
He was, evidently, a very sensible, practical man, and knew that
innkeepers would be found to horse mails for almost nothing, merely
for the sake of the prestige which attached to them, the increased
custom they brought to the bar, and old rivalry, which was often
exceedingly strong, and he preferred to pay a fair sum to be sure and
keep responsible men.
He considered that mails, on account of the limited number of
passengers, worked at a disadvantage when opposed by other coaches;
and no doubt he was right, because if a coach carrying fifteen or
sixteen passengers was nearly empty to-day, it would be remunerated by
a full load to-morrow; whereas, the mail with only seven, when full,
could not be reimbursed by one good load. It required to be pretty
evenly loaded every day to make it pay.
He said a majority of our mail coaches are not earning what is
considered the minimum remuneration for a public carriage.
He considered that to run toll free and duty free was sufficient to
secure them against competition, but, curiously enough, this never
seems to have been tried, for though the roads were compelled to let
the mails run without paying toll, the Chancellor of the Exchequer
always claimed the mileage duty, which was twopence a mile. There was
also a duty of five pounds for the stage-coach licence, or what was
termed the plates, which they were obliged to carry. The mails,
however, were excused from carrying the plates, as it was said His
Majesty's mails ought not to be disfigured; but whether they enjoyed
the more substantial benefit of having the five pounds remitted I have
not been able to ascertain.
As time went on, and fast coaches increased, Mr. Johnson must have
been at his wit's end to know how to get the mail bags carried. Mail
carts appear to have been an expensive luxury, as they cost a shilling
a mile, and he could generally do better with the coach proprietors.
In some cases there was so much difficulty in filling up stages that
it was repeatedly necessary to send orders that if no horses were to
be found to take the coach over a certain stage, to forward it by post
horses.
The Norwich mail, through Newmarket, received eightpence a mile, of
which two hundred pounds seems to have been advanced to help the
proprietors out of difficulties, and to induce them to go on at all;
but that mail was very strongly opposed by an excellent day coach, the
"Norwich Telegraph," from the "Golden Cross," Charing Cross.
So little at this time was the post-office work valued where it
interfered with the hours or increased the pace, that a night coach on
the same Norwich road as the mail declined to compete, and it was
suggested, but not carried out, to put a guard upon a coach, making a
contract with him to carry the letters, giving them some advantage for
so doing, which would make it worth their while; and a coach at one
time was employed to carry the bags between Alton and Gosport, which
were brought to the former place by the Poole mail.
It did not, however, meet with Mr. Johnson's approval. He says, "I
think that the use of coaches in that way goes directly to destroy the
regular mail coach system. I think that if any coach from London to
Manchester were to be allowed to carry ten outsides, it never would
arrive within an hour of the present mail coach, from the interruption
which is occasioned by the number of outside passengers, not to speak
of the insecurity of the bags."
No doubt he was quite right, as a rule; but if he lived to witness the
"Telegraph" coach perform with regularity that journey of one hundred
and eighty-six miles in eighteen hours, he would have confessed that
there might be exceptions to the rule.
He says, speaking generally of the system, with a justifiable spice of
_esprit de corps_, "I think we should look to the general result of
the mail coach system, and that we should provide the best expedient
we can for cases of difficulty. If we employed such coaches we could
not prevent the parties from writing Royal Mail Coach upon them, and
writing Royal Mail Coach Office upon all their establishments in the
towns where they reside; all of which would go very much to destroy
the distinction by which the present mail coaches greatly depend, and
we should consider that after the mail coach system has supplied all
the uses of the post-office, it is still valuable as a national
system. It originally set the example of that travelling which is so
much admired, not only at home, but even throughout Europe, and I hope
continues to set an example now. I am persuaded that the manner in
which the stage coaches have been accelerated arose entirely from
their desire to rival the mails upon their old plan, and they now try
to keep as close to them as they can, though, in all long distances,
they are certainly very far behind. Persons of the first distinction
travel by the mail coaches. I don't mean amateur whips, but persons
who depend upon the regularity, security, and comfort of the mail
coach, and being less likely to meet with disagreeable passengers."
He adds, "I am not aware of any coach that goes as fast as the mail
for a hundred and fifty miles, not even the 'Wonder,' and if some days
as fast, they are able, whenever they think proper, to relax their
speed, which the mail, being under contract, cannot do."
The keen competition between the mails and other coaches is well
emphasized by a letter written by Mr. Spencer, the coach proprietor at
Holyhead, to Mr. Chaplin in London, complaining that as the "Nimrod"
had commenced running through to Holyhead, they were obliged to carry
passengers at lower fares, and saying that he had by that night's mail
booked a lady through to London, inside, for four pounds; and from my
own experience, I can quite believe this, as some of the ladies of the
Principality are like Mrs. Gilpin, who, though on pleasure bent, had a
frugal mind.
When I was driving the "Snowdonian" upon one up journey, upon looking
at the "way-bill," as I left Dolgelly, I perceived that there was a
lady booked, to be taken up a mile or two out of the town, to go a
short distance, the fare for which was three shillings and sixpence
"_to pay_." She took her place in the coach in due course, and having
alighted at her destination, I demanded her fare from her, upon which
she assured me that she could only pay half-a-crown, as she had no
more money with her. I told her that I was responsible for the full
fare, and that she really must pay it; and when she saw that I was
determined to have no nonsense about it, she asked me if I could give
her change for a sovereign, to which I replied, "Yes, or two, if you
like;" whereupon, she opened her purse and exposed to my delighted
eyes two or three shiners.
But to show how serious was the reduction made by the Holyhead mail,
it will be sufficient to say that the fares by the Edinburgh mail,
which ran a distance of only one hundred and thirty miles more, were
eleven guineas and a half inside, and seven and a half outside: a full
way-bill amounting to sixty-eight guineas and a half. Now this, with
fees to coachmen, guards, and porters, would make a journey to the
northern capital from the southern one cost about fourteen pounds for
an inside passenger, and about ten for one travelling outside, and it
occupied forty hours.
The distance may now be performed in nine hours and at a cost of two
pounds, or less by Parliamentary train.
We have seen the mail bags no heavier than could be carried by a boy
riding a pony, but before the railway system commenced they had
increased to such an extent that some mail coaches could carry no
more, and, in two cases, they required to be subsidised. For some time
the "Greyhound," Shrewsbury coach, was paid every Saturday night for
two outside places to Birmingham, in consideration of their carrying
two mail bags as far as that town on account of the number of
newspapers; and when that coach ceased running the Holyhead mail was
paid for outside places to enable them to dispense with that number of
passengers, and find the extra space required for these bags. The
Dover mail also received assistance in the form of an extra coach once
a week for the foreign, or what were called the black bags, as they
were dressed with tar to render them waterproof.
With this before me I cannot help asking myself whether it was not
somewhat of a leap in the dark to reduce the postage at one bound from
the existing high rates to one penny. If the railways had not been
constructed with the celerity they were, there must have been great
difficulty and increased expenses in conveying the mails, as it would
have been impossible for the mail coaches to carry them and passengers
as well. I suppose, however, we must conclude that Sir Rowland Hill
had, with great foresight, and much consideration, assured himself
that such would be the case with the railways, and that he might
safely trust to their rapid development and co-operation for carrying
out his great project. Though the result might not have been equally
clear to others as to himself, he was only like the great engineer,
George Stephenson, who, when examined before a Committee of the House
of Commons, for the sake of humouring the distrust and nervousness of
his interrogators, placed the speed at which he expected the trains to
travel at ten miles an hour, though, at the same time he quite
reckoned upon, at least, double that speed.
The mail coaches working out of London had a gala day every year. On
the King's birthday they all paraded, spick and span, with the coaches
new or else freshly painted and varnished, the coachmen and guards
wearing their new scarlet liveries, picked teams with new harness, and
rosettes in their heads: blue and orange ones in old George the
Third's day; but the orange, for some cause or other, was changed to
red in the succeeding reign. In this form they formed up and paraded
through several of the principal thoroughfares at the West End,
returning to their respective yards preparatory to the serious
business of the night.
It was a very pretty pageant, but there was another scene connected
with them, and which, to my mind, was quite, if not more interesting,
which could be witnessed every week-day evening in St. Martin's-le-Grand,
between the hours of half-past seven and eight. Soon after the former
hour all the mail coaches--with the exception of seven or eight, which
left London by the western roads, and received their bags at the
"White Horse Cellar," or "Gloucester Coffee-house," to which places
they were taken in mail carts--began to arrive at the General
Post-Office to receive their bags. They turned into the yard, through
the gateway nearest to Cheapside, and took up their places behind the
building in a space which has been very much encroached upon since by
buildings, and, as eight o'clock struck, they were to be seen emerging
through the lower gateway, and turning off on their respective routes,
spreading out like a sky rocket as they advanced into the country.
During the long days in summer they turned out nearly as smart as upon
the Royal birthday, but on a dark, stormy blustering evening in
December or January, when snow or rain were falling steadily, there
was an appearance of business, and very serious business about them.
The scarlet coats were obscured from view by the somewhat elaborate
upper coats which have been elsewhere described; and there was a
feeling of serious reality about the whole thing, not unlike that
which comes over one upon seeing a ship start on a long voyage, or a
regiment embarking for foreign service. One felt that they would
probably meet with more or less difficulty, or, at any rate, that
there was an arduous task before them. The horses would be changed,
the coachmen would be changed, the guards would be changed, probably
there would be a considerable change in the passengers, but the wheels
roll on for ever, or, at any rate, till they arrive at their journey's
end, which, in some cases, would extend not only through that night,
but continue till darkness again returned, when the same work went on
through another night, and in two or three instances was not concluded
till the sun was again high in the heavens; and so admirably was the
service performed that the betting was long odds in favour of each
coach reaching its destination at the correct time.
They had to contend not only with climatic influences, but sometimes
the malice of man placed stumbling-blocks in their way. The same
diabolical spirit which induces men at the present time to place
obstructions across the permanent way of railways, led some miscreants
in November, 1815, to place several gates at night right across the
road near Warrington, which caused the guard of the Leicester mail to
get down ten times to remove them, and, but for the moonlight, would
have caused serious accidents, and a cart was also fixed across the
road. Gates were also, on a subsequent occasion, placed on the road
near Stockton to catch the Chester mail. The perpetrators of these
wanton outrages do not appear to have been discovered, or they would
doubtless have met with their deserts, as the Postmaster-General was
armed with large powers for protecting and preventing delay to the
mails. Among other convictions for interrupting the free passage of
the mails, one toll-gate man near Henley is recorded to have been
fined fifty shillings, and also different carters in sums up to thirty
shillings. An innkeeper was liable to the forfeiture of his licence
for such an offence.
The most trying time for the coachmen and guards were the two first
hours on the road. After that, few vehicles were moving about, but up
to that time a large number of all sorts, many of which were without
lights, were in motion, and not only was a very careful look-out by
the former necessary, but the latter had often, especially on thick
nights, to make a free use of his horn to avoid collisions. The roads
for the first ten miles out of town, as far as Barnet to the north and
Hounslow to the west, might, when the days were not at their longest,
be said to be a blaze of light. Between the down mails leaving London
and the day coaches arriving, none with less than three lamps, and
many with five, and some even with six, it was a bad look-out for
travellers who drove horses that were frightened at lights. Indeed, I
have known some persons very nervous on this subject. They seemed to
think that because the strong light dazzled them, it must have the
same effect upon the coachman's eyes; and, when I have been driving a
coach very strongly lighted, I have known men to leave the road and
drive into a field to get out of my way. The presence of a number of
coaches carrying powerful lights, and going both ways, probably does
have the tendency of throwing small carriages without lamps into the
shade, and so making it more difficult to see them. An aspiring
costermonger, trying to thread his way with his donkey and cart among
the numerous other vehicles, might be overlooked without much
difficulty among such a brilliant company.