The complete official time-bill for the whole distance is appended:—

Time-Bill, London, Exeter and Devonport (“Quicksilver”) Mail, 1837.

Contractors’
Names.		Number of
Passengers.		Stages.Time
Allowed.		Despatched from the General Post
Office, the      of     , 1837 at 8 p.m.
In.Out.M. F.H. M.Coach No. {With timepiece
sent out {safe, No.      to     .
Arrived at the Gloucester
Coffee-House at     .
Chaplin { 12 2}Hounslow.
{  7 1}  2 47Staines.
{  9 7}Bagshot. Arrived 10.47 p.m.
Company {  9 1}Hartford Bridge.
{ 10 1}  2 54Basingstoke.
{  8 0}Overton.
{  3 5}Whitchurch. Arrived 1.41 a.m.
Broad {  6 7   0 39Andover. Arrived 2.20 a.m.
{ 13 7   1 19Amesbury. Arrived 3.39 a.m.
Ward  9 5   0 55Deptford Inn. Arrived 4.34 a.m.
Davis {  0 5}Wiley.
{  6 5}  0 41Chicklade. Arrived 5.15 a.m.
(Bags dropped for Hindon, 1 mile distant.)
Whitmash {  6 6}Mere.
{  7 0}  2 59Wincanton.
{ 13 4}Ilchester.
{  4 1}Cart Gate. Arrived 8.14 a.m.
Jeffery {  2 6}Water Gore, 6 miles from South Petherton.
{}  0 44Bags dropped for that place.
{  5 1}Ilminster. Arrived 8.58 a.m.
Soaring    8 1}  0 25Breakfast 25 minutes. Dep. 9.23
}  0 46Yarcombe, Heathfield Arms. Arrived 10.9 a.m.
Wheaton    8 7   0 51Honiton. Arrived 11 a.m.
Cockram { 16 4   1 34Exeter. Arrived 12.34 p.m.
{   0 10Ten minutes allowed.
{ 10 3}Chudleigh.
{  9 3}  1 57Ashburton. Arrived 2.41 p.m.
Elliott {13 2}Ivybridge.
{  6 6}  2 33Bags dropped at Ridgway for
Plympton, 3 furlongs distant.
{  4 0}Plymouth. Arrived at the Post
{  1 7}Office, Devonport, the      of
          , 1837, at 5.14 p.m. by
timepiece. At      by clock.
216 121 14Coach No. { Delivered timepiece
arr.     . { safe, No.      to     .

The time of working each stage is to be reckoned from the coach’s arrival, and as any lost time is to be recovered in the course of the stage, it is the coachman’s duty to be as expeditious as possible, and to report the horsekeepers if they are not always ready when the coach arrives, and active in getting it off. The guard is to give his best assistance in changing, whenever his official duties do not prevent it.

By command of the Postmaster-General.
George Louis, Surveyor and Superintendent.

The “New Exeter” Mail went at the moderate inclusive speed of 9 miles an hour, and reached Exeter, where it stopped altogether, 1 hour 38 minutes later than the “Quicksilver.” The fourth of this company went a circuitous route down the Bath Road to Bath, Bridgewater, and Taunton, and did not get into Exeter until 3.57 p.m. Halting ten minutes, it went on to Devonport, and stopped there at 10.5 that night.

The tabulated form given on opposite page will clearly show how the West of England mails went in 1837.

The starting of the “Quicksilver” and the other West-country mails was a recognised London sight. That of the “Telegraph” would have been also, only it left Piccadilly at 5.30 in the morning, when no one was about besides the unhappy passengers, except the stable-helpers. Chaplin, who horsed the “Quicksilver” and other Western mails from town, did not start them from the General Post Office, but from the Gloucester Coffee-House, Piccadilly. The mail-bags were brought from St. Martin’s-le-Grand in a mail-cart, and the City passengers in an omnibus. The mails set out from Piccadilly at 8.30 p.m.

The West of England Mails, 1837.

Miles.Places.Old Exeter
Mail,
continued
to Falmouth.		Devonport
(“Quicksilver”)
Mail, continued
to Falmouth.		New Exeter
Mail.		Devonport
Mail, by
Bath and
Taunton.
General Post Office,
London dep. 8.0  p.m. 8.0 p.m. 8.0 p.m. 8.0  p.m.
 12Hounslow arr.  9.12”
 19Staines  9.56”
 23Slough
 29Maidenhead 10.40”
 58Newbury  1.53 a.m.
 77Marlborough  3.43”
 91Devizes  5.6 ”
109Bath  7.0 ”
149Bridgewater 11.30”
160Taunton 12.35 p.m.
180Cullumpton  2.42”
 29Bagshot 10.47 p.m.
 67Andover  2.20 a.m. 2.42 a.m.
 84Salisbury 4.52 a.m.  4.27”
 124½Dorchester 8.57”  8.53”
126Yeovil
137Bridport10.5 ” 11.0 ”
143Chard
 80Amesbury  3.39”
125Ilchester  7.50”
Honiton 11.0 ”12.31 p.m.
Exeter {arr. 2.59 p.m.12.34 p.m. 2.12” 3.57”
{dep. 3.9 ”12.44”  4.7 ”
210Newton Abbot arr.  6.33”
218Totnes  7.25”
190Ashburton  2.41”
214Plymouth  5.5 ”
Devonport {arr.  5.14” 10.5 ”
{dep.  5.41”
234Liskeard arr.  7.55”
246Lostwithiel  9.12”
252St. Austell 10.20”
266Truro 11.55”
271Falmouth 3.55 a.m. 1.5 a.m.
31 h. 55 m.29 h. 5 m.18 h. 12 m.26 h. 5 m.

It was at Andover that the “Quicksilver,” from 1837, leaving its contemporary mails, climbed up past Abbot’s Ann to Park House and the bleak Wiltshire downs, along a lonely road, and finally came, up hill, out of Amesbury to the most exposed part of Salisbury Plain, at Stonehenge, in the early hours of the morning. The “Quicksilver” was a favourite subject with the artists of that day, who were never weary of pictorially representing it. They have shown it passing Kew Bridge, and the old “Star and Garter,” on the outward journey, in daylight—presumably the longest day in the year, because it did not reach that point until 9 p.m. Two of them have, separately and individually, shown us the famous attack by the lioness in 1816; and two others have pictured it on the up journey, passing Windsor Castle, and entering the City at Temple Bar; but no one has ever represented the “Quicksilver” passing beneath that gaunt and storm-beaten relic of a prehistoric age, Stonehenge. One of them, however, did a somewhat remarkable thing. The picture of the “Quicksilver” passing within sight of Windsor was executed and published in 1840, two years after the gallant old mail had been taken off that portion of the road, to be conveyed by railway. Perhaps the print was, so to speak, a post-mortem one, intended to keep the memory of the old days fresh in the recollection of travellers by the mail.